Gemma leaves her comfortable apartment in Rome to visit Sarajevo with her son, Pietro. An exhibit commemorating the siege will include photographs by Pietro’s father, Diego.
Sixteen years earlier, Gemma escaped the war-torn city with Pietro while Diego remained behind and later died. As she uses the visit to repair her difficult relationship with Pietro, she also confronts her past.
She first met and fell in love with Diego while visiting Sarajevo as a student in the 1980s. After many upheavals, the two lovers found passionate, if temporary, happiness. They desperately wanted children but Gemma could not conceive. As Sarajevo was being torn apart by the siege of 1992, they found a possible surrogate – Aska, a young and beautiful musician. Gemma pushed her into Diego’s arms, only to be overwhelmed by guilt and jealousy. Now, a revelation awaits Gemma in Sarajevo that will force her to face the full extent of her loss, the true horror of war and the redemptive power of love.
Notes and Images
Twice Born was filmed on three different locations, Sarajevo, Korcula, Rome. Many of the characters in the picture alternate from the past to the present, the film begins in winter of 1984 and arrives to present day. We gave the ageing process of each of the character a lot of thought, the wardrobe, hair and makeup changes needed to subtle yet distinct. Gemma’s character (played by Penelope Cruz) is very complex and she goes through a lot emotionally during the film and this is reflected through her costume changes as well. The colors change from pastel to earth tones to more lighter tones such as aquamarine and creams. One of the challenges was to re-create the various Serb and Bosnian army uniforms for the scenes during the seige, they are extremely hard to find. We had to make many of the uniforms including the patches, emblems, hats.
