Twice a month during the late 1980s, Furlan made the three-hour commute between Zagreb and Belgrade, where her husband was based, to act in theater productions in both cities. After the Croatian War of Independence began in 1991, she was fired by the Croatian National Theater for refusing to quit acting in a Belgrade theater production. An ensuing public smear campaign turned her colleagues and friends against her as she received threatening messages on her answering machine. Furlan wrote a public letter on this behalf expressing her deep disappointment over the behaviour of her fellow citizens and colleagues and the threats of the nationalists against her. The couple finally left in November 1991 with what they could carry and moved to New York City.