For Buraz
Sabina Vajrača
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Logline
When his younger brother dies under suspicious circumstances, and the police refuse to investigate, Kenan, a successful Bosnian-American banker, is forced into the dark underbelly of Florida’s Bosnian Muslim immigrant community in order to uncover what actually happened.
Synopsis
Living in a Tribeca loft, with a high-paid job on Wall Street, and a perfect girlfriend by his side, Kenan’s life couldn’t be further away from where he started—a bad part of a shitty town in Florida, where he and his family landed 22 years before as Bosnian War refugees.
So when he gets a call that his younger brother Armin died of an accidental drug overdose while visiting their mother in that same neighborhood he ostracized himself from, Kenan’s plan is to go there, bury his brother, take care of his mother, and get back to NYC as quickly as possible.
That all changes at the funeral, when Mirso, Armin’s childhood friend and a reformed criminal, tells Kenan it was no accident—Armin was killed—and Kenan is forced to immerse himself into the dark underbelly of the Bosnian immigrant community in order to find out what really happened.
Lookbook
Sabina Vajrača
Writer & Director
Born in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sabina Vajrača immigrated to the U.S. as a war refugee and started her directing career in NYC theatre.
Her first film, the critically-acclaimed feature documentary Back to Bosnia, premiered at AFI Fest, screened at over 30 festivals worldwide, winning Director’s Choice at the Crossroads Film Festival, and is featured in the top 100 of the greatest films directed by women by BBC. It is available on Amazon Prime.
Most recently she co-directed a USC/Warner Bros. feature drama Voodoo Macbeth, and wrote/directed a short drama Variables, which won the DGA SFA Grand Prize and Alfred P. Sloan grant, was nominated for the Student Oscars, Student BAFTA, and the HUMANITAS Prize, and is currently streaming on IndieFlix, Film Shortage (Daily Pick), and Stowe Story Labs Vimeo channel as one of their Spotlight Films.
Sabina is a member of Film Fatales and Alliance of Women Directors, an alumna of Ryan Murphy Half Directing Mentorship, the Nantucket Screenwriters Colony, and Stowe Story Labs, and was in the top 25 selects for the 2020 HBO Directing Fellowship. She holds an MFA from USC School of Cinematic Arts and is repped by Paradigm and GGSSC.
Annika Dawson
Producer
Hailing from San Diego, CA, Annika Dawson earned her BA in journalism and film studies at San Diego State University, and is an MFA graduate of USC’s prestigious Stark Producing program.
Working as a multi-hyphenate across various mediums, she has produced commercials, music videos, and short films, including the sci-fi/action film Boléro—a Telluride, Palm Springs, HollyShorts, and Student Academy Award Finalist. She’s also worked as a UPM for docu-series on Netflix, A&E, and National Geographic.
Her most recent producing credits include Domino, starring Snoop Dogg and David Arquette, and The Summoned, a horror in post-production.
Having grown up as a “military brat,” she’s lived in many places across the US and funnels those experiences into her projects. She’s dedicated to bringing female-driven, character-rich, underrepresented stories, and the occasional action-packed comedy to the screen.
Most recently, Annika was selected for the highly competitive 2020 Women in Film Creative Producing Mentorship program.
Stowe Story Labs alumni can initiate an application for fiscal agency by sending an email to info@stowestorylabs.org.