TIRANA, Feb. 10 – Amnesty, the first ever Albanian participation in the prestigious Berlin International Film Festival will have its world premiere on Saturday, Feb. 12, in the Forum section. The Albanian-Greek-French co-production directed by Albania’s Bujar Alimani has also been nominated for the Best First Feature Award, Berlinale said on its website.
Financially supported by the Council of Europe European Cinema Support Fund, Eurimages, the movie was shot in Albania and Greece in the autumn of 2010.
The film will compete in the Forum section along with avant-garde, experimental, essays, lengthy observations, political reportages and yet-to-be-discovered cinematographers. In the Forum everything new or unconventional comes together and finds an audience known for its enthusiasm and discerning cinematic eye.
The Albanian Cinematography Center will also be present in the festival featuring a promotional stand of the latest Albanian film productions in Berlin’s Marriott Hotel from February 10 to 18.
The 61st Berlin International Film Festival will be held from February 10 to 20, 2011. About 400 films are shown every year as part of the Berlinale’s public programme, the vast majority of which are world or European premieres.
Amnesty
The movie starring Albania’s Luli Bitri and Karafil Shena, tells the story of Elsa and Shpetim.
A man and a woman in Albania. Their two partners are both in custody but reforms in the penal system allow married couples to meet once a month for sexual contact. At first the film spins these two narrative threads alongside each other and then ties them together artfully. The two meet by chance in the prison and start a tender love affair that looks set to end when their partners are freed in an amnesty.
“Using breathtaking images without any superfluous flourishes, Amnistia depicts the life of its protagonists in today’s Albania, which is marked by unemployment, economic hardship and patriarchal structures. The recently sacked textile workers queuing to collect their pay offs, the run-down hospital kitchen, a newspaper press, a tyrannical father-in-law acting up as a guardian of moral standards, and repeated takes of roads and buildings. Alimani’s use of color, especially in the jail shots, recalls Edward Hopper’s realism and the loneliness of his figures. Thus, the director not only creates a panorama of Albanian society, but also tells a love story that has the stuff of tragedy,” says Anna Hoffmann in the film review.
The old and new Albania
“Elsa and Shpetim embody the stories of many people I have met in my homeland. Both of them have every reason to not be together and simultaneously all the right reasons to be together, “says director Alimani.
The woman tries to revitalize herself through this love and the man to discover his lost self. They are searching for clear drops in a muddy life that’s choking them. “The old Albania is in conflict with the new. Morality struggles with passion and there’s a high price to pay. All this takes place in Albania, which is trying to find its own identity on the road to Europe.’
“Amnistia is a film about all the ordinary people who have never left the country. I don’t know how long Albania will need to find its place in the European mosaic. At the moment, it’s like an athlete who only cares about setting the next record, and not about the stable physical constitution he will need in the future.”
Asked if the Albanian-Greek co-production interprets the situation in Albania from a foreign perspective, Alimani told Berlinale “Amnistia shows the current Albanian reality from the perspective of an Albanian director. The fact that I’ve lived in Greece for more than twenty years has enriched my relationship to film: in Albania, I studied theater directing; in Greece I became a filmmaker. In a certain way, two cultures combine in me, and I’m very proud of it. Beyond that, my work is influenced by good films by many authors who are geographically very far apart.”
Bujar Alimani was born in Patos, Albania in 1969. He studied painting and stage direction at Academy of Fine Arts in Tirana. In 1992 he immigrated in Greece. He worked as an assistant director in several Greek films. He lives and works in Athens.
He was awarded with CineCinecourt Cinecinema Award in Mediterranean International Film Festival Montpelier, France 2007, a Special Jury Prize in the Siena International Film Festival, Italy 2007 and a Special Mention Prize in Mediterranean Int Film Festival- Tetouan Morocco 2008.
“Forgiveness of Blood”
The Forgiveness of Blood is another Albanian movie that will be premiered in the Berlinale Palast on Feb. 18. The movie is a US-Albanian-Danish-Italian production directed by Joshua Marston featuring a cast of Albanian actors. The movie 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. “According to dictates of the Kanun, Albania’s centuries-old traditional laws, none of the family’s male members – not even their young seven-year-old brother – may leave the house. As long as their father is hiding in the mountains and Nik is prevented from showing his face in public, the family has to rely on his sister Rudina, who is now obliged to leave school and take over her father’s affairs.”
Nik Xhelilaj, a Shooting Star
Last December, Albania’s Nik Xhelilaj was selected as one of Europe’s top ten acting talents who will participate in the 14th Shooting Stars showcase taking place February 12-14 at the 2011 Berlin International Film Festival for his starring role in “The Albanian.” Selected from a ‘longlist’ of 25 candidates proposed by member organisations of European Film Promotion (EFP), the ten young actors were chosen by a jury of established film industry professionals for their outstanding work in feature films. The highlight of the event is the presentation of these exceptional actors on the main stage of the Berlinale Palast on 14th February where they will be awarded the Shooting Stars Award. Shooting Stars participants go on to serve as ambassadors for European cinema, demonstrating their talents to international audiences. Starting with the Berlinale they are introduced at festivals and attend workshops around the world.
“In ‘The Albanian’ Xhelilaj brings both an intensity and a tenderness to his portrayal of the illegal immigrant that invest the role with a surprising complexity. A fresh and promising discovery,” says the Shooting Stars jury about Nik Xhelilaj’s starring role in “Der Albaner” movie, a German-Albanian co-production directed by Johannes Naber.
The movie which earned Xhelilaj international acclaim has been awarded with many prizes in different international film festivals.
In 2010, the German-Albanian co-production The Albanian earned Xhelilaj the Silver George for ‘Best Actor’ at the 32nd Moscow International Film Festival as well as the ‘Best Actor’ awards at the 2nd PriFilmFest in Prishtina, Kosovo and the 47th International Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival.
