The Son

Arman has a tendency to act out and is battling questions about identity and his future, in Bosnia and Hercegovina’s touching Oscar pick.

17-year-old Arman has grown up with adoptive parents in Sarajevo. He has never felt as loved as his little brother Dado, the parents’ biological son, and increasingly seeks the company of friends. Ines Tanovic continues building on the universe she created in the feature film debut Our Everyday Life (GFF 2016) and in Some Other Stories (GFF 2011), by focusing on different branches of the same family that develop in step with Bosnian society. With the story about Arman and his friends, she portrays a generation that grew up with the remnants for war, but without having experienced it themselves.

• Emma Caviezel