Salt Water after 47

Selma Selman
Salt Water after 47
Video
2016

The video talks about my mother’s first contact with the sea. She had a life-long desire to see for herself if it was really salty. Just as she heard that it was. In this video, I captured her first moment at the sea and her reaction. “After 47” refers to her lack of documents when she migrated from Kosovo to Bosnia. Culturally, the act of a woman leaving her paternal home to live with her “husband” is perceived as a marriage, whether or not it is officially recognised by the state or religious authorities. At age thirteen, my mother was unofficially married to my father who was seventeen years old. However, the marriage was not state-certified. After the dissolution of Yugoslavia, my mother was left stateless. In 2014, after years of negotiating with the authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, she managed to obtain Bosnian citizenship. After 47 years in total, she received her first passport. After 47 years, I helped make her wish come true. I took her on a vacation to the seaside.

– Selma Selman