three sparks is an intimate picture of village life in Albania, crafted in gratitude by a guest. Mexican/American artist Naomi Uman lived and documented life in rural Ukraine. Inspired by having seen her experimental non-fiction films portraying village life, she was invited to create a portrait of life in rural Albania. This took her to Rabdisht, a village perched high in the mountains, where people farm the rocky, vertiginous land.
Flora, a journalist in a Western country, comes to her homeland to trace the early life/identity of Mother Teresa or Anjeza Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, to produce a feature. But soon she will face the surprise of her own identity. Two different lives, in search of their identities, so badly effected by the past, during the communist system.
Toni, a neglected and spoiled 10-year-old boy, tries in every way to look like the idols that inspire his lonely days.
Aleksandra is in constant conflict with society's norms and her own self. Every day, she rethinks how she ought to act in the modern world and what sort of impression she makes. I AM NOT JUST A… is an honest portrait of our reality.
Lena and Ardi have to get married. As immigrants in America they agree to an arranged marriage by their old fashioned parents, who desperately want to keep the traditions. The comic and lovely moments between them start when they make another arrangement. Living for them selves too. Until it lasts. Based on true story.
Found footage compilation of Albania’s turbulent 20th century history is also a bitter and telling essay on the nation’s worship of personality cults and a warning of false prophets to come.
“Survival and School” is a beautiful story about the bad and evil times. An oasis of peace in war time. A nylon school built in the Berisha Mountains (Kosova) that had gathered around 200 pupils of the surrounding villages. The fate of people seen in the twenty-year-old authentic and timely shooting in quite different circumstances reveals the best the bad fate of man.
Perhaps the most chilling testament to the ruthlessness of Albania’s communist regime, this documentary presents a public trial in a packed cinema: four young men accused of industrial sabotage and listening to foreign music. In the finale, replicating the Stalinist show trials of the 1950s, the audience applauds the death sentences for two defendants, and long prison terms for the other two who absurdly also lose their voting rights. The ice cold Poshnja is a rarely-screened, forbidden film (it is not even listed on the Albanian archive website) and the sole directing effort of Albania’s leading film scholar, Abaz Hoxha.
Made during the violent civil unrest that rocked Albania in the 1990s, directors Nova and Faja have handcrafted a searing vision in which a demonic appearance brings chaos to a quiet hamlet.
How many times have we commented on the "problems" of modern couples with different characters? Events full of intrigue and controversy that in fact commonly occur in the provinces throughout the Balkans, but this time are colored by the dialect and cultural character of the Ulcinj area.
Through stark, intricate animation, Those Who Drown Cling to Foam illustrates the devastating personal account of a family forced to flee their home during the 1999 NATO bombings of Kosovo.
Up until the mid-90s if you were openly gay in Albania, you would be sent to prison. Many homosexuals still face bigotry and violence, even in their own homes. In the last five years, Albania has seen a dynamic LGBTQ movement. Gay activist have created secret guest houses in Tirana that offer shelter to young homosexuals who have been brutally abused. VICE Greece traveled to Albania and recorded rare glimpses into the lives of people who have been victimized and neglected because of their sexual orientation in one of Europe’s most homophobic countries.
Four female voices interweave a polyphonic narration of the tragic story of “Katër i Radës,” the boat that sank in 1997 due to the naval blockade imposed by the Italian government on migration flows from Albania. The relatives of the victims that were amongst the first to die, in their attempt to cross the borders of “Fortress Europe,” sail along the Strait of Otranto following the route of the doomed ship only to pose the questions ignored by the media and the judicial authorities.
In Communist Albania, a bank clerk finds herself at crossroads about the work performance of her superior, who is also her husband's best friend.
The Albanian transition has obliged Loro Shestani to give up: his wife is dead, his daughter is a refugee in Italy and has forgotten her roots, the sea does not offer fish any more. Loro has passed over the middle of his life and he has understood that his life is in vain, he is not prepared to accept this new world. He shares his solitude with his pigeons.
Albanian LGBT community members appear for the first time with their non hidden faces and names and share their personal stories about how the LGBT movement has changed their lives.
On the verge of Kosovo’s declaration of independence, MARIA, a teenage girl from a poor family in Northern Albania is sold off as a bride to MILAN, a 50-year-old Serb from a remote village in Kosovo. Maria must decide if she will accept this new life or fight back and choose her own fate.
During their residency in Kosovo, directors Meray Diner and Dafina Daka uncovered harrowing accounts of sexual violence used systematically as a weapon of war. More than physical assault, these acts were aimed at breaking families and silencing generations. Na Thojshin Lutko Moja draws on the testimonies of Kosovar women survivors to explore the hidden emotional aftermath shame, isolation, and the cost of breaking the silence. The film reclaims a collective memory often denied, offering a powerful portrait of resilience.
Din unfortunately, like many others, was sexually raped during the war, the truth had already begun to emerge and this condition was weighing on him emotionally, having difficulty facing his wife and the society regarding this tragic reality.
