Excursion
In Bosnia and Herzegovina’s entry for the 2024 Academy Awards®, teenage Iman becomes the center of controversy when, during a game of Truth or Dare, she erroneously confirms a piece of gossip…that she has lost her virginity to an older boy.
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One of the more disconcerting experiences during adolescence is the tendency for rumors to be spread—whether small or something more sinister, they can fester and derail a young person’s entire life to the point where they lose whatever sense of self-confidence they had to begin with. In her feature debut Excursion, writer and director Una Gunjak skillfully and tenderly explores what happens when one of these rumors is started by a teenager about herself during a game of “truth or dare” among middle schoolers. Trapped in her own lie, she fabricates a pregnancy and becomes the center of a controversy in this Bosnian teen drama. Aided by a remarkable debut performance by Asja Zara Lagumdzija, Excursion manages to subvert every trope in the coming-of-age formula book by never giving in to preconceived expectations, especially when it comes to the wants and needs of young people. The film implies that growing up is experienced in milestones you seldom even notice until they’re long gone. While innately understanding this hard truth while also delivering a solemn, sensitive teen angst drama, this film only marks the beginning of two rising Bosnian talents.
—Eden Sapir
- Original Language Title: Ekskurzija
- Director: Una Gunjak
- Principal Cast: Asja Zara Lagumdžija, Nađa Spaho, Maja Izetbegović, Mediha Musliović, Izudin Bajrović
- Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, France, Norway, Qatar
- Year: 2023
- Running Time: 94 min.
- Producer: Amra Bakšić Čamo, Adis Đapo
- Screenplay: Una Gunjak
- Cinematographers: Matthias Pilz
- Editors: Clémence Diard
- Music: Draško Adžić
- Awards: Official Academy Awards® Submission 2024 (International Feature), Locarno Film Festival 2023 (Special Mention)
- Filmography: Debut Feature Film
- Language: Bosnian
- Has Subtitles: Yes
- International Sales: Salaud Morisset