Otac

Gloria Lujanović’s Otac centres on a complicated father–daughter relationship, shaped by growing up in central Bosnia and living with the consequences of war. Their conversations, disagreements and attempts at understanding reveal a family history inseparable from the history of their homeland.

The father, a former member of the Croatian Defence Council, views life through his wartime experience and his determination to prepare his daughter for reality. His advice and warnings clash with her idealism, resistance and pursuit of justice. Concern often takes the form of criticism, while affection persists even when conversation turns into conflict.

This intimate perspective opens onto belonging, emigration and estrangement within one’s own homeland. The daughter’s departure and the father’s decision to remain become different responses to the same postwar world.

Moving between poetry, narrative and dramatic dialogue, Lujanović portrays a man whose personal disappointments reverberate through family life. Tenderness, bitterness and humour meet in a work about a love that cannot erase differences but continues to reach across them.