A new movie about the Bosna Quilt Workshop
A new movie about the Bosna Quilt Workshop
Painted with fabrics, drawn with threads - Bosna Quilts
A documentary by ORF
In 2023, Annette Raschner wrote an article for the Vorarlberg magazine KULTUR on the 30th anniversary of our workshop. She then had the idea of telling the story of the Bosna Quilt Workshop on film. And so she did.
The preview of her film took place on August 21, 2024 at the vorarlberg museum. The film documentary was shown in a packed hall, with music and interviews.
We invited our quilt sewers from Bosien to this event. It was quite an effort for our small workshop - also financially - but it was well worth it. The women arrived at Zurich airport on Monday and flew back on Thursday.
On the evening of the film presentation at the vorarlberg museum, our Bosnian guests sat - actually and figuratively - in the front row. The evening was translated into Bosnian for them. Excellent and warm-heartedly done by Isabella Campestrini, a young actress with partly Bosnian roots.
Accordionist Goran Kovačević and singer Mirela Hašćić provided the musical accompaniment for the evening. They played Bosnian songs - and our women sang along. Incidentally, Mirela has known the story of the Bosna Quilt Workshop from the very beginning. She herself lived in the Galina refugee home for a while as a child, and her mother worked in Lucia's quilting group there.
The audience was a colorful mix. There were companions from the very beginning, organizers of Bosna Quilt exhibitions, quilt owners, friends of the Bosna Quilt Workshop. Some came from very far away. Some who spent the night in Bregenz.
Not forgetting the many who were not there. Those who registered in advance because they couldn't come, because it was really too far or because their health didn't allow it. And last but not least, those who quietly and benevolently follow our work. All the wonderful people without whom the Bosna Quilt Workshop would not have been viable.
We have all been overwhelmed by the response to 31 years of workshop work.
At the end of the event, all the women were asked to come on stage one by one. The photo of Vesna before she took the stage is representative of the joy and pride of each of our seamstresses.
Here is the group photo taken afterwards. (Photo Daniel Furxer)
We were very grateful for the hospitality of the vorarlberg museum. The museum accompanied the event as warmly as if it had been their own.
We wanted to give Annette Raschner a small quilt as a thank you for her work. Munira Karo was to present it to her, as she had sewn it for her.
As Munira is not at all used to performing on stage, she had quite a lot of respect for this task. Safira reacted immediately and practiced the performance with her several times in our workshop.
Until Munira felt she could do it.
The evening of the film presentation was certainly the highlight, but the women enjoyed their days in Bregenz to the full. And on the ship.
It was like being by the sea here, they said, like being in Italy. (It was Lindau, rear island.)
A special program item on Tuesday evening: Annette Raschner, the film author (far left, with her daughter), cooked a goulash for the guests and film crew. A sign that the documentary about the Bosna Quilt Workshop was more than just business as usual for the film team.
It was particularly special when the Bosnian women entered the workshop rooms for the first time. Here, where their portraits usually only hang on the wall as photos, they were suddenly present, in all their liveliness. A great moment.
A little anecdote from Safira: on the outward journey, she was asked at the airport by a Swiss customs officer what the reason for her trip to Austria was. Safira replied: “We are actresses and are traveling to the premiere of our film”. Well, Safira has a strong self-confidence by nature. But working with the quilts has probably strengthened all the women involved in some way. And the evening of the film presentation did its bit.
For Vesna too. When we said goodbye at the airport, she said: We are traveling home as different people.
There is really nothing more to add to Vesna's words. And yet we do. The day after the movie night in Bregenz, Lucia received an email from Iren Meier in Bern. We were so pleased with her message that we are happy to let you read it:
“It touched me deeply to see the women from Goražde, with their humor, their strength, their pain and their love for life and for you and Daniel.
On the way home, I thought: it's this loyalty. To keep at it, for thirty years, to just keep going. You, the painter. You, the seamstresses. I think that's one of the most precious things you can experience in life. And when the women say: “Lucia, you saved my life” - they probably mean this too.”
Iren Meier spoke 15 years ago at the opening of an exhibition that her sister Silvia organized for us in Berikon (CH). Iren was a Middle East correspondent for Swiss radio until she retired. She lived in Beirut for many years and reported from all the conflict zones in that region. Even from Bosnia. I can still remember it well: when the radio was on and Iren Meier was reporting, people would interrupt every conversation to listen to her.
The film about the Bosna Quilt Workshop was broadcasted on September 1, 2024 in the series Österreich-Bild am Sonntag on ORF 2.
Now i is available to watch whenever you want as video on demand on ORF ON.
