USA/Albania/Denmark/Italy
2011/digital cinema/109mins
THURSDAY 10 NOVEMBER 6.30 pm – BUY!
Members only screening. After the festival.
With your votes cast it’s time to find out the winners of the Audience Awards and the FCCA Jury Prize. Then wrap up the festival with an award-winning drama about feuding families in Albania.
This carefully textured portrait of feuding families in a traditional village in Albania slowly draws you into a gripping drama through its authentically observed characters.
17-year-old Nik – who dreams of girls and setting up his own business when he leaves school – has his world turned upside-down when he gets caught up in the ancient and seemingly inescapable rules of payback and retribution.
Writers Joshua Marston, Andamion Murataj
Director Joshua Marston
Producers Paul S Mezey
Cast Refet Abazi, Tristan Halilaj, Sindi Lacef
Print Source Madman Entertainment
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
How do my wife and I obtain tickets to this night?
Thanks.
Hi Jonathan
Tickets are available from Dendy Canberra. Please book early as tickets are allocated.
Regards
Canberra International Film Festival
Plunged into a strange world the film dropped me into a time warp. The world of Albania to be precise. I couldn’t pick the period as the horse and cart trundled along a mud road, until I spotted a mobile phone. So, the film was set in current timelines.
People will argue and fight with each other. We all do that. Words are exchanged. Somehow we usually get by. Sometimes a punch may be exchanged for which you could end up in court. If you go further and kill someone you will definitely be of interest to the police and the same applies in Albania, as in this film. However, there is more to it than that. The police involvement is one thing but issues like this go beyond the police.
The film depicted the conventions of the culture. The rules that had to be obeyed. The fear of the feud of two families. The clearly defined roles of men and women, of the wronged and the offender, the time that must pass before amends can be made, if they can be made. The role of the negotiator. Yes, negotiator! There are rules that extend or overarch the law the police react to. The police have a role to play, but the cultural rules were just as important or more important.
I found the film particularly slow and rate it 3. However, as a window into this Albanian culture it was an eye opener to be remembered, and in that regard it was a good one for the final flick of the festival.