AllMovie

Italian actor/director Sergio Castellitto takes the helm for this romantic war drama concerning a mother who finds her memories of a tragic romance stirred during a trip to Sarajevo with her teenage son. The year was 1984. With the Winter Olympics fast approaching, Gemma (Penélope Cruz) was in Bosnia when she fell in love with dashing American photographer Diego (Emile Hirsch). Their passions burned bright during their brief time together, but shortly after Gemma voiced her desire to become a mother, civil war erupted and plunged the country -- and their romance -- into chaos. Flash forward to present day, when Gemma receives word that an exhibition of Diego's photographs is about to go on display in Sarajevo. Still very much haunted by her complex and difficult past, Gemma boards a plane bound for Sarajevo with her teenage son. The moment she steps off the plane, the memories come rushing back. Later, as Gemma escorts her son around the city sharing stories from her youth, everything she sees seems to stir vivid memories of that ill-fated love affair, and the many ways that the harrowing experience shaped her into the person she is today.