TIRANA, Albania is participating in this year’s edition of the Berlinale with the Sworn Virgin movie, a coproduction with Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Kosovo based on a novel by Albanian writer Elvira Dones.
The first feature by Italian director Laura Bispuri starring Alba Rohrwacher will be vying for the Golden and Silver Bears in the 65th Berlin international film festival scheduled to take place next February.
“Based on the novel by Elvira Dones and starring Alba Rohrwacher, the movie is a journey inside the feminine universe told in its many contradictory forms. Set in the Albanian mountains, then modern Milan, the flick tells the story of Hana, a girl who escapes from her destiny of being a wife and servant appealing to the old law of the Kanun, swearing eternal virginity and therefore becoming a ‘sworn virgin.'”
Hana Doda, still a girl, escapes from her destiny of being a wife and servant which is imposed on the women in the inhospitable mountains in Albania and appeals to the old law of the Kanun, swearing eternal virginity and therefore becoming a ‘sworn virgin.’ She turns into a man, takes up a rifle and becomes Mark Doda. As Mark, she enjoys the same consideration as any other man, but after over ten years spent in solitude in the mountains, Hana decides to change her life. She leaves Albania and goes to Milan, where she meets caring, loving, people that life had denied her so far. Hana struggles to leave her man clothes and learns to be woman, learning to piece back together the two souls that for years have coexisted inside her body.
Back in 2011, Albanian movie Amnesty won the C.I.C.A.E. Prize of the Guild of German Art House Cinemas at the Berlinale for “the portrayal of the intense story of a society lost in transition, through a love story destined to a tragic end.”
Albania’s Nik Xhelilaj was selected as one of Europe’s top ten acting talents who participated in the 14th Shooting Stars showcase at the 2011 Berlin International Film Festival for his starring role in “The Albanian.”
