Production is underway in Kosovo on Hatixhe And Shaban, the new feature from Exile filmmaker Visar Morina.
The feature will shoot for 40 days in Kosovan capital Pristina and the village of Sllakofc. Astrit Kabashi and Flonja Kodheli lead the cast, alongside Alban Ukaj, Tristan Halilaj and Refet Abazi.
Morina wrote the film with Doruntina Basha. It follows a couple living in a village with their three daughters, who must move to the capital looking for work when a family member steals their 12 cows.
The film is produced by Morina’s company Vicky Bane that he runs with Pia Hellenthal, with Sophie Ahrens, Fabian Altenried and Kristof Gerega of Germany’s Schuldenberg Films.
Co-producers are Eshref Durmishi and Besnik Krapi of Kosovo’s Eagle Eye Films, Dritan Huqi of Albania’s OnFilmProduction, Marija Dimitrova of North Macedonia’s List Production and Danijel Hocevar of Slovenia’s Vertigo Ljubliana.
The film has backing from Eurimages, BKM, Filmstiftung NRW, DFFF, the Kosovo Cinematography Center, the National Center of Cinematography Albania, the North Macedonia Film Agency and the Slovenian Film Center. It won the 2022 Baumi Script Development Award in 2022, alongside Dea Kulumbegashvili’s April (recently selected for Venice Competition).
“The film is intended to be closely aligned with the current situation in Kosovo,” said Morina, who talked to people looking for work in the country as research. ”‘Even your mother doesn’t love you, when you’re broke,’ said a man who worked as a day labourer, looking for work at an intersection every day. He somehow sounded embarrassed when he said that, as if the words had slipped out of his mouth.”
Hatixhe And Shaban will be Morina’s third feature, after 2015’s Father, which played at Karlovy Vary and Busan; and 2020’s Exile, which debuted at Sundance, played in Panorama at Berlin, and won the Heart of Sarajevo for best film at Sarajevo Film Festival. Both films were selected as Kosovo’s Oscar entries for best international feature film.
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