Inspired by an incredible true story, writer, director and producer Sabina Vajrača’s short film “Sevap/Mitzvah” (A Good Deed) focuses on Muslim woman Zejneba Hardaga and her family who hid the Jewish Kabiljo family at their home and helped them escape Nazi-occupied Sarajevo.

Fifty years later during the 1992-1995 siege of Sarajevo by separatist Bosnian Serb forces, the Jewish community repaid the favor, helping the Hardagas leave Sarajevo using fake Jewish identity cards – with the Kabiljo family themselves securing the Hardagas a refuge in Israel.

B’nai B’rith CEO Dan Mariaschin speaks with Vajrača – herself a refugee from war-torn Bosnia – about “Sevap/Mitzvah,” her documentary “Back to Bosnia” and how her experiences shape her filmmaking.