Tag: Kosovo

The Rise & Fall Of Comrade Zylo (Shkelqimi Dhe Renia E Shokut Zylo)

Posted on by Jeremy Clarke

QUICK SNAP: LIVE FROM TALLINN

Comrade Demka (Donald Shehu) just can’t say no. It’s 1971, and he’s strongly in demand as a political speechwriter. As fast as he can churn out speeches, it seems, he’s asked to write more. His wife Zenepja (Xhoana Karaj) is fed up with him working all the time, feels he’s wasting his talent and anyway would rather he spent more time with her. And then, there’s Comrade Zylo (Aleks Seitaj), appropriating speeches Demka has written for others, such as the one on the tedious-sounding ‘Innovative Developing Elements in the spread of our culture throughout Albania’.

Watching Zylo read one of Demka’s speech through the circular windows of the auditorium doors, Demka listens to the praise for Zylo pouring from the mouth of Zylo’s wife Adila (Enisa Hysa). She’s impressed by the words her husband has written, unaware that Demka, not Zylo, actually wrote them. She’s less impressed, along with most of the audience, with the speech of committee chair Comrade Q (Petrit Malaj) – which Demka also wrote, on a tight deadline – going down rather less well. At the after-speech dance (with a traditional and very conservative Albanian folk band) she dances and flirts with Demka.

Q meanwhile, is less than happy, feeling that Demka could have written better for him. No sooner has he stormed off than Zylo, who clearly knows a good thing when he sees it, is asking Demka to come and work for him. He introduces Demka to one of his sons, the composer Diogenio (Samuel Vargu). Also in Zylo;’s circle are the playwright of The Storm Is Defeated, Adem Adashi (Amos Muji Zaharia), and his wife, the singer Cleopatra (Jorida Meta).

Zylo becomes obsessed with the potential effect of socialism on West Africa, and wants Demka to write him a speech for an upcoming conference there. The pair of them go to Africa on a delegation, accompanied by Cleopatra. There’s clearly something going on between Zylo and Cleopatra. No-one in the party pays any attention to the delegation, which proves something of a non-event. Except that it’s the beginning of the end for the career of Comrade Zylo.

The whole thing oscillates between a bureaucratic drama with Comrade Q, Zylo and various factions vying against each other to get ahead, an existentialist drama in which Demko struggles to write to deadline, a domestic drama in which Demko’s wife thinks he’s a great writer wasting his time on political speeches, and the occasionally very funny scene of satire about life in an Eastern Bloc socialist state.

Perhaps the best scene occurs when during a visit to a village, Zylo gets drunk at a gathering convened in his honour and starts talking about all men being equal, that they shouldn’t oppress their women like tyrants, and so forth. He starts waving his pistol about (not with the intent of discharging it, except maybe to put a bullet in the ceiling) while everyone around him is getting increasingly worried. He’s speaking out for an equality which can’t possibly exist under the current bureaucratic, socialist system, with its Party hierarchy, and it’s as if everyone is aware of the existing pecking order but him, the person in charge.

Overall, this is a film likely to make more sense or to appeal to those who have experienced life under a totalitarian leftist regime than those of us who haven’t.

The Rise & Fall Of Comrade Zylo premiered in the 26th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.

The Flying Circus (Cirku Fluturues)

Posted on by victorfraga

QUICK SNAP: LIVE FROM THE TALLINN BLACK NIGHTS FILM FESTIVAL

Shortly before the break of the Kosovo War in the 1990s, four young and naive male actors wish to travel to Tirana in order to perform at a prestigious festival. Their play is some sort of burlesque Monty Python. They hear that Michael Palin himself is in Albania filming his latest documentary series. This could be the opportunity of their lives: they could both make it big and also meet in person the very person who inspired their play.

The journey is far from simple and straightforward. Despite having an official invitation, Kosovo has now become no man’s land, and they have to contend with menacing and violent Serbian oppressors until they reach the river that separates Kosovo from Albania. They make their crossing on a precarious fuel-smuggler’s dinghy. Upon reaching the Albanian side, they need to get to Tirana. They believe that their brotherly Albanians – unlike Serbians – will be very supportive of their mission, but they encounter a number of unexpected barriers, including thieving thugs and corrupt police officers. They are forced to give out the little money that they possess, and eventually end up in jail.

Their luck eventually turns. The police release the four artists upon making phone calls, speaking to the Minister of Culture and confirming that their invitation is genuine. They finally reach Tirana, where they encounter yet more challenges. Their performance has not been advertised because they failed to send a confirmation to the festival organisers. Yet, they might find a solution. After all, where there is a will there is a way.

The four young actors are very sweet and charming. Adorable dreamers. But they are also inexperienced and vulnerable travellers. They epitomise both artistic resilience and foolishness. But will their gamble pay off? Will they successfully represent their troubled home nation in a foreign country? Might they even win a prize? Is there a chance that will they meet their elusive English idol? Could a mysterious man wearing hat and shades and quietly watching the foursome be Michael Palin in disguise?

This Kosovan/Albanian/North Macedonian production is a lighthearted and conventional comedy of errors. It’s about artistic expression as a tool for personal and political liberation. It’s urgent in its simplicity, spiced with political flavours, prescient messages and moral dilemmas. Should the four man return to Kosovo before the war breaks and fight for their country’s freedom, or should they remain in Albania, where they can get their message across through their art?

The Flying Circus is showing in Competition at the 23rd Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. DMovies is live at the event.

The Marriage (Martesa)

Posted on by victorfraga

Set in present-day Prishtina (the capital of Kosovo), The Marriage is the story of an impossible love. Anita (Adriana Matoshi) and Bekim (Alban Ukaj) are adding the final touches to their wedding. Their preparations are almost complete and they will tie the knot in just two weeks. Anita has been living with the trauma of her missing parents during the Kosovo War of 1999, while Bekim is very much an established man in the city. In the course of their wedding-planning, Bekim’s secret ex-lover from the past, Nol (Genc Salihu), returns from France. His return changes course of events and establishes a new connection between characters.

First, Bekim and Nol recreate their love and desire for each other, while Anita embraces the “friendship” between the two men, constructed under heteronormative and traditional beliefs. Nol uses his time in Prishtina to make his way back into Bekim’s life, reassuring him that his love remains as strong as in the past.

Bekim and Nol began their relationship during the Kosovo War, as they took shelter with Bekim’s family. They face oppression on two levels: the Serbian terror against ethnic Albanians, and the widespread homophobia. The film states: if there’s one thing capable of uniting Albanians and Serbians, that’s hate for gay people. Bekim and Nol lie next to each other in a central moment of the film, during the War. Nearly two decades later, they reunite just before Bekim’s wedding, in a passionate lovemaking scene, the first of its kind in the history of Kosovo cinema.

Forbidden love is a source of great pain. And being a gay man in Kosovo is no easy ride. Nol is brutally beaten by a group of men, supposedly after a hook-up, and Bekim refuses to hire out his bar for an LGBT event, in two fine examples of different ways how homophobia manifests itself in the young nation of the Balkans. This is not a filmic shortcoming, but instead a actual reflection of attitudes towards homosexuality in Kosovo.

The movie also highlights the strict gender roles and hegemonic models everyone in Kosovo is subjected to, not just gay men. Bekim (Alban Ukaj) is determined to marry Anita. He’s an oppressed gay man unable to accept his sexuality as an identity, and instead chooses to internalise homophobia. The film neither rises above these phenomena nor offers any real solutions. Veteran Adriana Matoshi delivers an outstanding performance. She conveys the notion of female sacrifice extremely well. Genc Salihu makes a brilliant debut as Nol.

The Marriage is a dirty and thought-provoking movie, directed by a woman. Perhaps it’s not a militant LGBT movie, as many activists would like to see, but indeed it succeeds to raise awareness and stir debate around a diehard taboo. It showed in Kosovo last months to sold-out screening for two weeks. It’s has featured on various film events, and showing at Roze Filmdagen Amsterdam LGBT Film Festival, on March 10th. It premires in the UK as part of the Cambridge Film Festival taking place between October 25th and November 1st.

Recollection

Posted on by victorfraga

Preoccupied with the politics and history of his country and the dramatic sociopolitical changes that took place during the 1990s in the Balkans, Art Haxhijakupi has created a very personal movie, offering a very exciting glimpse into Kosovo through the eyes of a local artist.

This 40-minute featurette combines a vast spectrum of archive material from the 1990s: from television footage of national pop singers to videotapes depicting the director’s family circle and his own childhood. It begins with a very intimate scene: a young girl, probably a friend or relative, facing the camera and passionately warbling a song in a relaxed family environment. Later on, we come across various VHS clippings of popular singers from the 1990s, such as Adelina Ismajli and Shyhrete Behluli.

The dialogue is very limited and there is no voice-over. Instead, the audience sees a juxtaposition of various archive pieces providing some useful insight into the country’s culture as well as into the fragile political landscape during the last decade of the 20th century. We view scenes of the police oppression against demonstrators, symptomatic of a very young and volatile state. Tanks and soldiers shooting rockets bring back painful memories of the dark days of a recent past.

This documentary film doesn’t follow a linear narrative; the various archive images have been collated arbitrarily, it seems. This is a fascinating peek into everyday life in this newly-formed and troubled country two decades ago. There is a lingering feeling of nostalgia throughout. Like the title suggests, this doc is a complex mosaic of memories. It is also a personal investigation reflecting the director’s childhood as well as the collective memory of the Kosovan people. Ultimately, it establishes a dialogue about national identity and history, and offers an opportunity to rediscover and reclaim a hurtful past.

The film director Art Haxhijakupi is one of our favourite dirty boys. Click here in order to find out more about the young artist.

Kosovo is once again sizzling with the best docs!

Posted on by victorfraga

Launched in 2002, DokuFest is now firmly established as one of the most important film events in the Balkans, and the largest one in Kosovo. American filmmaker AJ Shnack recently described it as one of best international documentary festivals in the world.

It includes a diverse programme of documentaries and short films from every corner of the world screened in theatres and impromptu venues in the Medieval city of Prizren (pictured above). There are green rolling hills and a majestic fortress quietly overlooking the film action and industry buzz.

Prizren is a multi-ethinic city where languages, culture and religions have existed in harmony for centuries, as a symbol of tolerance for Kosovo and the region. Located on the slopes of Sar Mountains in the southern part of the Republic of Kosovo, Prizren has a major cultural centre throughout history, already mentioned Byzantine and Ottoman times.

This year DokuFest is in its 16th edition. What was once a small initiative quickly grew and became a catalyst for cultural and cinematic revival, and a hub for documentary films in the Balkans, attracting filmmakers from all over the world. Perhaps more significantly, DokuFest is a platform for human rights, environmental protection, cultural heritage and taboo breaking. It has built solid bridges between the peoples of the Balkans and the rest of the world.

Kosovo’s new face

Until recently, people thought of Kosovo as a warzone. Not anymore, and DokuFest played a major role in changing this perception. It has given film professionals and visitors the opportunity to experience a beautiful, safe and fast developing country, alive with culture.

The festival tends to focus on small groups, causes and communities without a voice. The organisers carefully shape the event according to films being shown, with numerous support activities – such as workshops, panels, master classes, and a photo exhibition. Previous strands of the festival included migration, political change and activism, and they have consistently encouraged the discussion religious, sexual and social taboos.

This year’s programme is divided into Competition and Special Programme. In the competition section, films are grouped in Balkan Dox, International Dox, Human Rights Dox, Green Dox, International Shorts, and National categories. Sections of the Special Programme include ‘View from the World’, ‘Future My Love’, a retrospective of avant-garde English documentarist John Smith and much, much more.

The lowdown

It’s very difficult to select from a pool of more than hundred documentaries and many more short films, but here we have come up with a few recommendations for you, and our reviews will follow soon.

Firstly, the eagerly-awaited doc about the controversial Slovenian band Laibach’s concert in North Korea (pictured above) will be presented at the Fest. This is as dirty as it gets. The country may sound strangely interesting to almost everyone these days but few would imagine a concert of legendary Slovenian rock band Laibach in Pyongyang in celebration of countries national holiday. That’s exactly what happens in Morten Traavik’s and Ugis Olte’s wry and humorous film Liberation Day (2017), a first such concert for a western rock band. There’s even a very unusual rendition of The Sound of the Hills to a beyond perplexed audience!

Secondly, the very touching Donkeyote (Chico Pereira, 2017). Manolo leads a simple life in Southern Spain. He has two loves: his animals, in particular his donkey Gorrión (“Sparrow”), and wandering through nature. Against the advice of his doctor, he decides to plan one last walk in the US, the brutal 2200 mile Trail of Tears. But not without his donkey.

Finally, Recollection (Art Haxhijakupi, 2017) reflects experiences of Kosovo from the perspective of a child of the 1990s. It is an experimental documentary that explores the author’s feelings between individual and collective memory, identity and struggle. Through a collage of family footage along with mixed items of pop culture memorabilia, this experiment celebrates the collective journey in an era of oppression and resistance. In the intersection between two different realities, this video-narrative is spontaneously built and never simply over.

This piece is an updated version of the article originally published last year for the occasion of Dokufest’s 15th anniversary.