When Joel and Ellie ride through that icy wilderness and stumble across Jackson’s bustling lights in “Kin,” you feel it. Everything shifts. The cold eases off, just a bit. The show slows down and lets you breathe. Why? Well, a lot of it boils down to who’s behind the camera: Jasmila Žbanić, a Bosnian filmmaker who has a serious knack for exploring messy, battered human hearts.
From Sarajevo to Jackson: Real-World Grit
Let’s start with some essential background, because Žbanić brings fire-and-ice credentials. Born in Sarajevo in 1974, she spent her teen years living through the utter madness of a city under siege — snipers, demolished streets, lining up for bread while bombs fell. No wonder this woman has zero patience for fluff and wasted words.
She studied at the Sarajevo Academy of Performing Arts and famously walked away from mainstream studio offers because she was determined to tell stories her way. Her film “Grbavica” scooped the Golden Bear at Berlin in 2006, and “Quo Vadis, Aida?”—which follows a UN translator’s desperate scramble during the Srebrenica massacre — nominated for an Oscar and swept the European Film Awards. (Not too shabby.)
So, when showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann started hunting for someone to bring the show’s first real taste of hope to life, they didn’t just want a horror director. They wanted a survivor, a builder, a believer. Žbanić fit the bill. As Mazin put it, “She brings lived experience we could never fake.” And you can feel every ounce of that history humming through “Kin.”
Reconstructing Jackson: A Crash Course in Heart and Hardware
HBO went all in for Jackson, and Žbanić had the huge job of making this town buzz with real life instead of zombie-dodging set dressing. Filming took place in Canmore, Alberta, and it wasn’t just a quick set swap. The crew transformed over 30 storefronts, swapped road signs, stacked a 30-foot log wall right on Main Street, and brought in 300 extras along with 25 horses. Locals loved the spectacle, but nobody loved it more than Žbanić, who reportedly spent her days wandering through set, consulting with designers, and swapping war stories with the construction guys.
She leaned into details — food on tables, Christmas lights, giggling toddlers. That’s classic Žbanić. She’s obsessed with what makes a broken world tick, not just what makes it shatter.
Bold Moves, Silence, and That Famous Hug
So, how does her hands-on, real-world style shape what we see on screen? Let’s break it down. In “Kin,” Žbanić slows the show right down, lets moments breathe, and places all her faith in two things: faces and silences. She even asked Ramsey and Pascal to “play the silences, because survivors often say nothing but feel everything.” It works. You can taste Joel’s panic without him uttering a word.
She insisted on playing Ellie’s brief hope (the movie theater scene) before unleashing that devastating argument with Joel in the stables. She told the official podcast she believed, “Hope has to come first. Then the pain cracks it wide open.” And it does. The order of these scenes mirrors the rollercoaster survivors actually feel — tiny moments of reprieve before the rug gets yanked out. Bella Ramsey later said, “You believe Joel’s voice actually cracks because Jasmila made Pedro run that barn monologue eight times until it broke him.” That intensity shows.
The Human Element: Trauma and Hope in Close-Up
Žbanić’s camera barely ever lets go of Ellie or Joel’s faces. Even when a gorgeous, snow-clad landscape sits behind them, she keeps us locked into their heartbreak. It’s a choice that explodes with purpose. As IndieWire put it, “Her camera hugs faces, not zombies.”
And while Jackson presents as a patchwork quilt of coziness — hearths, laughter, candles — it’s really the undercurrent of trauma that powers these scenes. Joel’s panic attacks hit out of nowhere, Ellie shoves her wounds deep, and for maybe the first time all season, these two just sit and talk like scared, damaged people. The whole thing’s a balancing act between safety and soul-deep dread. Žbanić leans into both.
Why Jackson Feels Miraculous
Žbanić summed it up herself in a Vulture interview: “I survived snipers to buy bread, so I get why Jackson feels like an impossible miracle.” And she isn’t wrong. Jackson brims with details almost unheard of in apocalypse TV — kids in movie theaters, horses chewing hay, the crackle of a quiet dinner. These aren’t just comfort props, they’re reminders of how remarkable basic decency can actually be in a broken landscape.
But she never lets you forget the cost. Joel and Tommy’s reunion, all tight hugs and choked-up admissions? Žbanić films it so intimately, you almost feel like an eavesdropping kid. She’s fearless — pulling the camera in close, letting all that history ricochet through every awkward grin and swallowed sob.
Žbanić-isms: Signatures On-Screen
Let’s talk favorite moves. Žbanić loves natural light — candles, lamplight, snow as a makeshift reflector. She leans on long takes, but never to show off. It’s about letting the raw awkwardness fill the room. And when the community stands firm, she locks the camera down, says, “No more chaos here.” But during breakdowns, she’ll switch to a shaky steadicam, chasing Joel’s wild energy as it unravels. For viewers, the difference is instant. You settle down in safety, then jitter as soon as the traumas return.
Cast on Žbanić: Pushing for Honesty
Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey have both raved about her approach. Ramsey shared to Collider, “She really lets you dig in. You get permission not to be ‘dramatic.’ Sometimes the small things land harder.” Gabriel Luna, who plays Tommy, said he felt safe turning all the way inward for his vulnerable scenes. “Each director brings their own rhythm, but with Jasmila, it’s emotion first, plot second,” he told Variety.
Critical Buzz, Ratings Glow, and All That Meme Glory
Episode 6, “Kin,” didn’t just sneak past viewers — it exploded. HBO reported 7.8 million viewers on premiere night, just behind the big series opener. Critics loved the switch-up, with the episode notching a Directors Guild of America nomination for Episodic Drama in 2024. Sure, “Succession” took the trophy, but this episode stole plenty of hearts. Fan buzz echoed the sentiment: #JoelDadMode trended on X for two days straight, and “Ellie Eye-Roll of Legend” landed as one of TikTok’s top memes that week.
What This Means as Season 2 Glimmers on the Horizon
Žbanić won’t be a one-episode wonder, either. Deadline confirmed she’s slated to direct a big chunk of Season 2 — specifically, a major Jackson episode plus a portion of the Abby timeline, which (for anyone who knows the game) comes loaded with even more trauma, violence, and questions about hope.
It’s basically the perfect match. As the world of “The Last of Us” grows — and the survivors face even bigger tests — her blend of pain, hope, and empathy is exactly what the show needs.
Riding Off Into the Jackson Sunset
So here’s the deal: “Kin” isn’t a breather, not really. It’s a showcase for the parts of humanity that refuse to die, even when fungus tries. Jackson, under Žbanić’s gaze, is a small miracle painted bright with hard-won hope and haunted by things never fully said. The episode feels different because it is different. It’s what you get when you hand the reins to someone who has lived disaster and come out the other side hungrier for life.
Next time you see Ellie and Joel under candlelight, remember Žbanić — the director who made us all believe miracles don’t just happen — they’re built, brick by brick, hug by hug, silence by silence.
