An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker
A Roma scrap collector fights Bosnia-Herzegovina’s healthcare bureaucracy to save his pregnant wife during a desperate medical emergency.
Overview
A poignant exploration of love, loss, and resilience in the face of despair.
Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Brisk
- Intensity
- Strong
- Complexity
- Easy to follow
- Violence
- None
- harrowing
- urgent
- intimate
- serious film night
- social justice viewing
What critics said
Critics broadly praised the film’s raw docufiction realism, powerful performances by its non-professional cast, and indictment of healthcare inequality.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
The non-professional cast re-enacts the family’s real medical crisis, including Nazif and Senada portraying themselves.
Senada’s emergency operation is denied because the family lacks medical insurance and cannot pay.
The family’s remote life, scrap-metal salvaging, poverty, and exclusion from healthcare define the social landscape.
Senada’s worsening condition and risk of septicaemia create a race against time throughout the film.
Films like An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker, and why
Close-Up
shared docufiction approach, social realism, and intimate focus on marginalized families
Rosetta
shared observational realism, nonprofessional performers, and institutional hardship
The Bicycle Thieves
shared humanist drama, economic precarity, and urgent family crisis
The Death of Maria Malibran
shared documentary texture, Roma representation, and bleak confrontation with bureaucracy
Movie Details
- Director
- Danis Tanović
- Release Date
- 2013-08-09
- Runtime
- 75 min
- Rating
- 6.6 / 10 (24)
Cast
- Senada Alimanović
- Nazif Mujić
- Sandra Mujić
- Šemsa Mujić
Common questions
- What is An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker about?
- A Roma scrap collector fights Bosnia-Herzegovina’s healthcare bureaucracy to save his pregnant wife during a desperate medical emergency.
- What is An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker as brisk, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as easy to follow.
- Is An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker violent?
- No — Ember's analysis finds no violence in An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker.
- What did critics think of An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker?
- Critics broadly praised the film’s raw docufiction realism, powerful performances by its non-professional cast, and indictment of healthcare inequality.
- Which films are like An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker?
- Films with a similar feel include Close-Up, Rosetta, The Bicycle Thieves, and The Death of Maria Malibran.
- How long is An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker?
- An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker runs 75 minutes.
