Albanian movie wins Eurimages funding

TIRANA, June 27 – Bota (World), a feature film project written and directed by Albania’s Iris Elezi has received Euro 100,000 funding from the Council of Europe’s Eurimages Fund. The Albanian movie was one of the 17 feature films the Euroimages Board of Management decided to support in its 127th meeting held from 19 to 22 June 2012 in Copenhagen.
Bota will be the third Albanian movie to get Euroimages funding after Bujar Alimani’s Amnesty and Robert Budini’s Agon in 2009 and 2010.
Iris Elezi’s movie is set in a remote Albanian village, where employees of a small caf页ncover secrets about each other, and their community’s murderous political past, as one of their colleagues discovers the truth behind the mysterious disappearance of her family.
“Albania, present day: Juli, Ben and Nora live in a small, far off village where their entire families were exiled during the country’s half-century of communist rule. A big, green neon sign that reads ‘Bota’ (Albanian for ‘world’) hangs above the door of the one-floor caf鮠Next to this charming hideaway is a mysterious, murky swamp.”
“BOTA, my first fictional film will most resemble a contemporary Days of Heaven, with spare, precise framing that will move at times from wide vistas to extreme close-up’s of objects amid naturalistic settings,” says director Elezi.
“I’d like to imbue BOTA with the real sense of a fever dream, sometimes silent in sections, and by utilizing colour, space, light and sound to illuminate the very specific geography of this desolate region where time has its own unique pace and rhythm. I strongly feel that BOTA while opening a window in the little known Albania, will also have an appeal to all people who will see a reflection of their own struggles the world over,” adds the director.
Albanian born Iris Elezi studied film theory and criticism, anthropology and women’s studies in the USA before completing her film production studies at the Tisch School of the Arts (NYU) in 2001.
Collective memory and the preoccupations of time are some of the essential inquiries underlying her work. Her editing and directing skills on the award-winning six-part documentary series Under Construction (2007) resulted in Amnesty International “Films That Matter” selection for the episode
Iris Elezi continues to live and work in Tirana where she teaches film analysis at the Academy of Film and Multimedia Marubi. She’s currently in preparation of her first feature length film, BOTA.
Albania has been a member of Euroimages since January 2009 and is represented by the Albanian National Cinematography Centre (ANCC).
Euroimages is the Council of Europe fund for the co-production, distribution and exhibition of European cinematographic works. Set up in 1988 as a Partial Agreement, Euroimages currently has 36 Member States and aims to promote the European film industry by encouraging the production and distribution of films and fostering co-operation between professionals.