In 2014 , Eğridere started working on her directorial feature debut with '' Seasons of War '' , a love story about a multi-ethnic married couple in Sarajevo over the course of 4 years from Spring 1992 to Winter 1995 during the 1992 – 95 Bosnian War . Eğridere had the idea for the film when she was traveling in the Balkans , doing research on her own family history and their experiences in Bulgaria in the 1950s and 1970s . After visiting Bosnia and Herzegovina and realizing the similarities between her own family 's experience and the experiences of local Sarajevans , she wrote the script for '' Seasons of War '' with her writing partner Mark Harley . The script was based on true events during the Bosnian War , of which Eğridere later said " I have a personal connection to the story . I wanted to make a documentary about my family history and I went to Bulgaria to do research . I traveled all of the Balkans . During my trip , I met a woman in Bosnia , who inspired the character of Jelena in the movie . This woman told me her story and it was exactly the same story I heard from my grandparents : a young couple forced to make difficult choices and are discriminated because of their nationalities and religion . It was the same story , yet there was almost half a century in between . At that moment , I realized I had to do the film because same story repeats throughout history ; different times , different countries but the story remains the same . I am sure there are Russian-Ukrainian families or many others around the world who are currently going through the same hell . I just had to tell the story and raise awareness to the topic . " Eğridere cast only actors from the former Yugoslavia , most of whom lived through the war — including stars Adnan Novo and Sanja Popovic — and incorporated their experiences into her script . Production of the film was delayed due to 2014 Southeast Europe floods . Eğridere appealed via her official Twitter and Facebook profiles for donations to help the flood victims and pledged to donate all the funds raised through the film 's Indiegogo campaign to aid in flood relief in the region . Before the production of the film started , Eğridere was compared to Angelina Jolie and '' Seasons of War '' was compared to Jolie 's directorial debut '' In the Land of Blood and Honey '' , of which Eğridere explained that she watched and respected Jolie 's work both as a director and a scriptwriter but '' Seasons of War '' was a totally different film that followed a totally different story line and that her film was not a war film but was a film simply about a couple and the difficult choices they had to make
2014 Southeast Europe floods
2014 Southeast Europe floods
Seda Eğridere