Balkan Oscar Longlist Candidates

With just under 2 months until oscar night (March the seventh), and with the shortlists announced in less than a month,  I thought I’d take this opportunity to have a look at the candidates for Oscar recognition coming from Balkan cinema.

Albania:  “Alive”, director Artan Minarolli

The film looks at Albania’s struggle to reconcile tradition and modernity.  The protagonist is 22 year old Koli, a student in Tirana who returns to his ancestral  village for his father’s funeral to discover he has become entangled in a blood feud started when his grandfather killed another man many years earlier.

With his life in danger, Koli must flee his home country as an illegal immigrant.

The director explains the films connection to a real life tragedy in which 86 immigrants died when a ship bound for Italy sank.  So, probably best not to expect a happy ending.

The blood-feud tradition is still present in Albania, often the young must bear the cost for the sins of the father.

Bosnia and Herzegovina:  “Nightguards”, director Namik Kabil

Nightguards is a black comedy following a single overnight shift at a furniture shop, the two friends and ex-soldiers who work as security have a long and eventful night. One of the guards keeps vomiting and deduces it must be caused by pregnancy. Sadly no English subtitled trailers are available, for those who speak Serbo/Bosno/Croat (or even Montenegrin) here is a Q&A session after the premiere, which doesnt quite match the glitz and glamour one assosciates with film premieres.

The film is intended as a commentary of post-war Bosnia, an ailing society which many expect will not give birth to a healthy social offspring in it’s current form. “Nightguards” dreams of following in the footsteps of “No Man’s Land”, the Bosnian Oscar winner in 2001.

Croatia: “Donkey”, director Antonio Nuic

Antonio Nuic’s Donkey is set in the hot summer of 1995, as the war civil war amongst the Yugoslav nations came to its end.  A family reunion reopens wounds and hostility, but the family unites behind a plan to transport a donkey to Italy and sell it for meat.

The beautiful scenery of Dalmatian Croatia is made all the more impressive through the cinemtography and evocative music.

Nuic chose to set the film  at the time of the war’s end as a parallel to the ending of familial hostility.

Macedonia: “Wingless”, director Ivo Trajkov

With a more interesting soundtrack than I’ve come to expect from Balkan cinema,this film about a man rebuilding his life after astrangement from his wife was released this week in Macedonia.

It looks interesting but I won’t be holding my breath for an international release of this joint

Czech-Macedonian (FYROMian if you prefer) film.

Serbia: “St. George Shoots the Dragon”, director Srdjan Dragojevic

Dragojevic is known in the west for his previous film “Pretty Village, Pretty Flame”, and like “Pretty Village…” this is an anti-war film. The film follows the fate of soldiers in the Balkan Wars, and later during the First World War.

The film was funded in part by the Serbian government and became the latest film to be known as Serbia’s most expensive. The film is a reworking of the stage play of the same name and has been in the production pipeline for some ten years. Strong performances by Milutin Milosevic and Lazar Ristovski lead the film to success in Serbia and some warmish reviews from abroad and of the films on the list it has the best chance to make the shortlist.

On a side note, like absolutely all Serbian films you can expect to see plenty of naked ladies- which seems to be de rigeur for Serbian filmmakers, as evidenced in the trailer.

Political Murder Before Albanian Elections

Fatmir Xhindi, the Albanian Socialist politician, was murdered this weekend as the elections approach in 2 months time.
Xhindi was shot by men armed with AK47s near his family home in Roskovec. Xhindi was deputy leader in one of Albania’s socialist parties. Xhindi was hit with six bullets and died on his way to hospital [Reuters].

Albania has been overrun with illegal weapons since the government collapsed and lost control of state owned weaponry in 1997.

This election is seen to be important regarding Albanian progress towards EU membership, the state must prove it is able to hold clean and fair elections if it is to win EU acceptance- Albania filed for EU candicdacy only last week.

The Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha said: “This ugly criminal act has not only shocked the family of the deputy, his hometown and colleagues but all Albania and Albanians,”

Xhindi’s murder has alarmed EU ministers.

“I appeal to the Albanian authorities to carry out an investigation as soon as possible”, said Joseph Daul, the french MEP.

Oli Rehn, the EU Enlargement Comissioner, said in an official statement:
“I strongly condemn the murder and extend sincere condolences to Xhindi’s family and friends”, and called for a thorough and succesful police investigation.

Another issue Albania must address prior to the election is the requirement to show ID cards when voting, whilst nearly one million citizens had not been issued with the cards, as of late April.

Albanian politics is still affected by serious corruption, a recent USAID poll concluded corruption has increased in the last 12 months and is most prevailent amongst politicians and lawmakers.

Blood feuds still occur in modernAlbania,  raising the issue of politically motivated violent retaliation, though this would surely lead to disaster ahead of the election. Even without retaliation the murder has cast a shadow on the election.

Albania has still not recovered from the eccentric policies of the communist dictator Enver Hoxha, who died in 1985.  As well as making Albania the world’s first legally Atheistic state, Hoxha fell out with his communist peers one by one, until Albania became totally isolated. Hoxha ran the country on a Stalinist model, complete with purges and personality cult, and through the use of paranoia of a fear of invasion.

For this reason 700,000 concrete bunkers were built to ward off potential invaders. That is one bunker for about every 4 citizens.

Some of his other policies included making private ownership of cars illegal and the banning of maps.Needless to say such policies excluded the higher echelons of party membership.

To this day there are no definitive maps of Albania and any foreigner who has tried asking a local person in Tirana for directions using a map will find Albanians do not use or comprehend them.

The Elections are scheduled for June the 28th.