Film screening: Silence of Reason + Q&A with Director: Kumjana Novakova

Silence of Reason documents the systemic rape and sexual enslavement perpetrated against women by the Bosnian Serb army during the Bosnian War (1992-95). The film presents first-person testimonies, evidence and court findings from the 2000 Foča Rape Camp Trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the first international trial to prosecute rape and sexual enslavement as war crimes and crimes against humanity.

These textual references are shown against found images and amateur recordings of the city under war showing the landscapes where some of the crimes were committed. Often blurry or distorted, the images mirror how memory works when traumatic experiences occur. Silence of Reason abstracts representations of violence while amplifying the voices of those who would not be silenced.

In the filmmaker’s words, 'Silence of Reason is a tiny cinematic memorial to both [the womens’] courage and their selfless contribution to a more just society.'

Following the screening we will have a panel discussion and Q&A with the Director, Kumjana Novakova, Baroness Arminka Helic (TBC), Cécile Bourne-Farrell and Professor Denisa Kostovicova.

The screening is being hosted by the Visual and Embodied Methodologies Network, the Art and Conflict Hub and the War Crimes Research Group at King’s College London in collaboration with Tate Modern.

The UK premiere of the film is being screened at Tate Modern on 29 January 2024. Find out more

(images: Kumjana Novakova, Silence of Reason 2023. Courtesy the artist)

Speakers

Kumjana Novakova

Kumjana Novakova is a research-based filmmaker, film curator and lecturer, born in Yugoslavia. After studying political sciences and social research, in 2006 she co-founded the Pravo Ljudski Film Festival in Sarajevo, and acts as its chief curator. From 2018 to 2021 she was leading the Film Department of the Museum of Contemporary Arts in Skopje.

As an author, Kumjana explores the languages of cinema researching relationships related to power, war, memories and (un)belonging. Her work has been shown and exhibited at festivals and galleries across the world. Her film Disturbed Earth (co-directed with Guillermo Carreras-Candi) was shortlisted for the Academy Awards. She currently lives between Sarajevo and Skopje.

Professor Denisa Kostovicova

Denisa Kostovicova is Professor of Global Politics and Director of LSEE Research on South Eastern Europe at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Denisa is a leading scholar of post-conflict reconstruction with a particular interest in post-conflict justice processes. She is the author of Kosovo: The Politics of Identity and Space (Routledge, 2005) and Reconciliation by Stealth: How People Talk about War Crimes (Cornell University Press, 2023).

She is currently directing a major research programme funded by the European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant, “Justice Interactions and Peacebuilding: From Static to Dynamic Discourses Across National, Ethnic, Gender and Age Groups.” Prior to joining LSE, she held junior research fellowships at the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford.

Cécile Bourne-Farrell

Cécile Bourne-Farrell is an exhibition curator for public and private structures. Since 2015, she is a visiting curatorial curator in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London, and at Arts Cabinet, London. Cécile’s curatorial projects focus on decolonial practices based on a curatorial ethos between artists, institutional and private infrastructures. She is Curator of visual materials on the project, 'Mapping Injury', Principal Investigator, Vivienne Jabri, funded by a UKRI Frontier Research Grant (Horizon Europe Guarantee), King's College London (mappinginjury.org). Cécile is a member of AICA, AWITA and CIMAM and writes regularly about contemporary artists.

Moderator

Professor Rachel Kerr

Rachel Kerr is Professor of War and Society in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. She is a contemporary historian whose research focuses broadly on how states, societies and individuals contend with legacies of war and atrocity. Rachel’s current research is focused on the role of art and creative approaches to contending with ongoing and past violence, and how visual and embodied methodologies can be leveraged to address intersectional gendered violence in the context of war and genocide.

Rapporteur

Arta Uka

Arta Uka is a PhD candidate in the Department of War Studies. Her doctoral research focuses on the role of children in the Kosovo war. Arta will document the event and write up a summary afterwards for publication on our website.