Silence of Reason

Forensic video essay built as a performative research into the first international criminal tribunal case to enter convictions for rape as a form of torture and for sexual enslavement as a crime against humanity. While working solely with visual archives and testimonies, Silence of Reason acts as memory itself: elusive, fluid, rejecting framing, and moving in all directions, both spatial and temporal. The singular experiences of violence and torture by women from the Foča rape camps during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina become our collective memories, surpassing time and space.

---

Direction: Kumjana Novakova

Script: Kumjana Novakova

Editing: Jelena Maksimovic

Sound: Vladimir Živkovic

Production: Medea

Producers: Kumjana Novakova

Co-production: Pravo Ljudski

Production Design: Kumjana Novakova

Format: DCP

Color: Color

Production Country: North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Production Year: 2023

Duration: 64'

Contact: Institute of Documentary Film, Medea

Awards/Distinctions: Human Rights Award — Sarajevo FF 2023, Best Directing — IDFA 2023

Text selection and editing: Kumjana Novakova

Kumjana Novakova

Filmography

2014 Sk (short, co-direction)
2014 When Clouds Burst (short, co-direction)
2016 It Could Be a Film (short)
2021 Disturbed Earth
2023 Silence of Reason