Von Scham und Geld

A film by Visar Morina. Starts September 24th at the fsk. In Albanian with German subtitles.

[Credits] [Tickets & Termine] [Trailer]

“Feeling asha­med is a luxu­ry,” Hatixhe explains to her sis­ter. A luxu­ry that she and her hus­band Shaban can­not afford. With their three daugh­ters and their grand­mo­ther, they were forced to
lea­ve their vil­la­ge in Kosovo. Their liveli­hood was taken away from them. Now they live with Hatixhe’s sis­ter and her hus­band, a wealt­hy busi­ness­man, in Pristina. Shaban seems to have got lucky: his brot­her-in-law has given him a job as a clea­ner
in his club. Even if it’s only three days a week. Certainly not enough. Shaban doesn’t find out how much he ear­ns any­way. He doesn’t dare ask eit­her. Because in their new life, the most important thing is to be gra­teful. Grateful for a roof over
their heads, gra­teful for any job, howe­ver humi­lia­ting, gra­teful for any form of sup­port. The help that Shaban and Hatixhe recei­ve is never uncon­di­tio­nal. It con­stant­ly reminds them of their place in socie­ty. Those who give set the rules. Those who recei­ve must be gra­teful.
Visar Morina’s third fea­ture film, fol­lo­wing BABAI and EXIL, takes a relent­less look at the vio­lence of eco­no­mic depen­den­ci­es. It fol­lows Shaban and Hatixhe from the com­pa­ra­tively sta­ble con­di­ti­ons of their vil­la­ge into the social indif­fe­rence of the big city. They sink ever deeper into a spi­ral of finan­cial hard­ship, humi­lia­ti­on and the com­pul­si­on to bow to the expec­ta­ti­ons of others. At one point, Shaban walks through the streets of Pristina as if in a daze. In the back­ground hangs a lar­ge US ban­ner on a buil­ding faça­de; in front of it stands the sta­tue of Bill Clinton. Later, he says: “Sometimes I feel as though I’m not quite the­re.” In his film, which won the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema cate­go­ry at Sundance, Morina depicts a socie­ty in which peo­p­le are defi­ned by what they own or can afford.
Jens Thiele | Indiekino

Credits:

DE, XK, SI, AL, MK, BE 2026, 129 mins, Albanian with German sub­tit­les
Director: Visar Morina
Cinematography: Janis Mazuch
Editing: Joëlle Alexis
Starring: Astrit Kabashi, Flonja Kodheli, Kumrije Hoxha, Fiona Gllavica, Alban Uka

Trailer:

im Kino mit deut­schen Untertiteln.

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