JULIETTE BINOCHE EMOTIONALLY SCARRED BY SARAJEVO

Juliette Binoche still feels the pain she felt researching her role as a Bosnian immigrant in Sarajevo.

Juliette Binoche plays a Bosnian immigrant who escapes the genocide during the Bosnian War and tries to make a new life for herself and her son in London for the film Breaking and Entering.

Juliette visited the war torn capitol Sarajevo to understand more about her character’s immigration experience.

“While trying to imagine the war there was breathtaking because you see the shots on buildings still. Some of it has been rebuilt and changed but you still really feel the city has been in trauma. Even though a lot of people left from the old Sarajevo, the identity became even more important somehow because of the trauma of what happened.”

The Parisian born actress was so emotionally affected by her journey to Sarajevo that the memories still resonate deeply when she talks about them.

“I felt ashamed as a French that I was close to them and didn’t do anything and my country didn’t do anything where for four years they’d been shot like animals. I felt compassion, I felt love. I felt–I felt pain you know. If you go there that’s what you feel. It’s complex.”

Juliette dedicates her performance to her grandmother, a Polish immigrant who escaped during World War II and fled for France.