Albania cinema honored in Berlianale

TIRANA, Feb. 21 – The Albanian cinema was successfully represented in this year’s edition of the Berlinale film festival with Amnesty, a movie directed by Bujar Alimani winning the C.I.C.A.E. Prize of the Guild Of German Art House Cinemas. Amnesty, the first ever Albanian participation in the prestigious Berlin International Film Festival had its world premiere on Saturday, Feb. 12, in the Forum section. The Albanian-Greek-French co-production directed by Alimani had been nominated for the Best First Feature Award.
“The film represents the clash between a younger generation with the traditional patriarchal and oppressive structures in their society. Love raises the desire of change but is confronted with the impossibility to be realised yet.”
Meanwhile, the “Forgiveness Of Blood,” a movie directed by American Joshua Marston and featuring a cast of Albanian actors grabbed the Silver Bear Award for the best script written by Albania-born, New York-based scriptwriter Andamion Murataj.
The movie is a US-Albanian-Danish-Italian production directed by Joshua Marston featuring a cast of Albanian actors. It focuses on a teenage boy and his sister in northern Albania who are forced to abandon their dreams after suddenly finding themselves drawn into a terrible vendetta.
The two main characters are played by 18-year-old Tristian Halilaj and 15-year-old Sindi Lacej, who had no previous acting experience.
Meanwhile, Nik Xhelilaj was given the Shooting Stars Award as one of Europe’s top ten acting talents for his starring role in “The Albanian.”
This edition’s Golden Bear for the best film was won by Iranian director Asghar Farhadi for his “Nader And Simin, A Separation” movie.