Art has always been a significant part of human life, even when it didn’t have a specific name, when we didn’t distinguish its types, and when its true meaning was unknown. Many say that art is a special human activity that involves creative fervor, created work, and the experience of the work itself. However, when we delve deeper into the magical world of artists, we will notice that it is, in most cases, easily recognizable, yet special in its own way. For example, every written word of this text is art, as is every verse of the song we quietly hummed this morning. This month’s Active Youth Feature will follow the story of a girl whose life achievements are closely tied to art.

Ema Sarić is 15 years old and comes from Banovići. After finishing primary school, she decided to continue her education at the Secondary Medical School in Banovići. Art, she says, has been present in her environment for as long as she can remember. For our Ema, art is film. She says she loves filming and photography and has been doing it for 10 years. Her love for film was born thanks to her brother.

Ema has only recently become a member of our family, and she had the opportunity to share with us what her beginning was like and how much it actually means to her to be a scholarship recipient of the Foundation:

For the first time, I heard about the Hastor Foundation back in elementary school from one of my teachers, and then I looked for more information through social media. I decided to apply, and here I am today—part of the largest organization for supporting young people in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is an honor and a pleasure to be part of this great and, above all, noble family. Given that the Hastor Foundation supports and promotes the work of young talents, I take on the responsibility for my continued development, progress, and enhancement of my skills.

She began her story by saying that film, filming, and everything associated with it is a kind of driving force for her. So, Ema is not just involved in acting but is also working towards creating her own films. At the age of five, she first participated in the Dubrovnik Film Festival, where she turned out to be the youngest actress, and it was there that she had the opportunity to give her first interview. She emphasizes that, although created in childhood, it is a memory that we simply remember forever, and it becomes a part of us.

She has won at many film festivals, and in the previous season, she won at the global “FIFES” festival, where she was selected as the best film by both the professional and children’s juries among 14,000 films submitted worldwide. Additionally, at the “OQROS PEPELA” Film Festival in Georgia, she was named Best Actress. It is also worth mentioning that she was a finalist at the “Student World Impact Film Festival” and received a special award at the “Cinemaking International Film Festival.”

Ema has, of course, also achieved success in Bosnia and Herzegovina. For many years, she has been a participant in the Sarajevo Film Festival and has won at festivals in Tuzla and Zenica.

In my opinion, film and photography are increasingly finding their place in today’s world, so I would love to continue working in this field in the future. The greatest support for this work comes from my parents and my brother, with whom my first film fantasies began.

Which of her films could she single out as her favorite and the one she is most proud of? — a question that posed a challenging task for Ema. How to choose just one among so many successes that is particularly dear to her heart? After some reflection, our scholarship recipient decided to choose the film “Školske muke”. The reason for this choice, she says, is that she both directed and acted in it. It was created during the COVID-19 period with her friend, purely as a joke, but ultimately attracted significant audience attention. Unfortunately, she notes that she has not yet had the opportunity to act in a larger work, but she has no doubt that this will happen in the near future.

Despite her young age, Ema is working towards developing her first love as much as possible and leaving behind impressive results. In closing, she expressed the desire to convey a symbolic message:

To all the scholarship recipients, I send the message that we should always have higher goals in life. Nothing happens overnight; it requires a lot of hard work and patience, but the results will certainly come in the end. Believe in yourself and work on yourself, because that is something only you can do— no one else!