​BACKGROUND AND THE KANUN

​​The documentary is set in contemporary Albania, where the Kosovan-Albanian Director of Photography Latif Hasolli and the Slovenian Director Marija Zidar began researching and filming in 2014. The country experienced some of the most abrupt social transitions in all of Europe, and their complexities, as experienced by Albanians today, are the setting for this film.
 
In Albania, the fall of Enver Hoxha’s communist dictatorship in early 1990s saw a revival of old value systems, especially in the remote northern areas. In the absence of a functioning state, and in the ensuing social disorder (the new democratic government fell in the late 1990s), the Kanun was revived – a customary code of law that had for centuries regulated communal life as well as private matters in the Albanian tribal society, but was outlawed and harshly punished during the regime. For a killing or a grave offence of honour, the code allowed a man two rights and duties: blood revenge (Albanian: gjakmarrja, the taking of blood) or forgiveness to the other family and reconciliation, achieved through mediation, whereby the two clans would become closer than kin. The Kanun also prohibited women and children to be targeted in revenge.
 
However, while in the 1990s the mentality and social pressure regarding both revenge and reconciliation were revived in parts of Albania, the strict Kanun codes, rules and rituals were not. Modern revenge killings bear little to no resemblance to the codified, almost ceremonial aspects of Kanun based blood feud, which in the old days could sometimes prevent taking revenge for generations. Recalling tradition became a justification for committing crimes. These ancient laws have also become a source of exploitation for various local NGOs and individuals who claim to mediate according to the Kanun. Many among them have been persecuted by the state as corrupt practices interfering with constitutional law.
 
While today the country is being rapidly modernised, the path of transition has been long.

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PRODUCTION CREDITS

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A production by Vertigo (SI)
in co-production with RTV Slovenia (SI) and Dera Film (Kosovo), Film House Baš Čelik (Serbia), Seagull Entertainment (Montenegro)

Director: Marija Zidar
Director of photography: Latif Hasolli
Editor: Uroš Maksimović
Co-editor: Mariana Kozáková
Sound: Miloš Drobnjaković, Julij Zornik, Jovo Kljajić
Composer: Dimitrije Vasiljević
Colorist: Teo Rižnar

Producer: Danijel Hočevar
Co-producers: Latif Hasolli, Jelena Mitrović, Drita Llolla
Associate Producer: Katja Lenarčič

With the support of: Eurimages, Slovenian Film Centre, Film Center Serbia, Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia, Film Centre Montenegro, Creative Europe – MEDIA, Kosovo Cinematography Centre
In collaboration with: Film Studio Viba Film, Friendly Production, NuFrame, 001

Developed at: dok.incubator 2018, BDC Discoveries 2015
Presented at: Last Stop Trieste 2021 (winner of First Hand Fund Award), DOK Leipzig Coproduction Market 2015

Duration: 82 minutes / 2K / DCP ​​​