Stela, from Albania, returns to her mother's home in Brussels to attend her grandmother's funeral. She notices suddenly that her mother is possessed by fear rather than by grief. Her behavior seems confused, absurd and even, sometimes, paranoid. The trauma resurging from the past invade their lives.
Bota (Albanian for “the world”) is a cafe situated on the edge of a vast area of marshland in a remote part of Albania, and it is here that the lives of the protagonists intersect in this compelling debut by Iris Elezi and Thomas Logoreci. The directors skilfully exploit the genius loci of the desolate landscape and, aided by a period score and beguiling long shots, they flawlessly evoke the atmosphere of a place where the past still encroaches upon people’s lives.
Young Yazidi Kurd immigrant Avesta is seven months pregnant. Freshly escaped from the hellish underworld of ISIS, she has just one thought in mind: getting revenge on the man who forced her into slavery. When she arrives in Brussels, she locates and attacks members of his family in order to force him out of his ISIS-linked hiding and bring him before the courts. At the same time, Avesta finds sanctuary at a refugee centre in Brussels. Despite her post-traumatic mutism, she meets Yassemine, an interpreter of Kurdish origin who offers her support and tries to get her to talk. Yassemine helps Avesta take her first steps in Belgium and brings her to see Babette, a nurse in the city centre. The exam shows that her unborn baby is doing well, but horrible scars are revealed on Avesta's body.
Years after declaring her eternal virginity and opting to live life as a man in the mountains of Albania, Hana looks to return to living as a woman as she settles into a new existence in modern-day Milan.
Exil tells the story of a chemical engineer of foreign origin who feels discriminated and bullied at work, plunging him into an identity crisis.
An Albanian emigrant is caught in Amsterdam among the promise and allure of the sin-filled city.
The lives of the tenants of a lower-class apartment building in the outskirts intersect on a backdrop of crime, drug dealing, confused feelings and tainted relationships, in a lucid portrait of contemporary Rome. Marcello, a bisexual former body builder married with Chiara, has an affair with the bourgeois professor Walter; the ambitious Mauro and cold-blooded dealer and his wife Simona get involved in the ambiguous business of the local boss Carmine to move up to the elegant and cruel circles of central Rome that profit from the public funds for the disadvantaged; Valeria and her son Attilio, Flaminia and her violent husband Bruno face the daily difficulties of their troubled lives. The corrupted powers of urban speculation invade a suspended corner of the suburbs, contaminating the lives of a group of lost souls,revealing the desperate world of the slum and the pitiless scene of the city center as the hidden face of the same coin.
Threatened by creditors, a newly unemployed man agrees to work for a debt collector, but soon discovers his deal with the devil has unexpected costs.
Paulo, a young pianist, meets Ilir, a double-bass player originally from Albania. It's love at first sight. Confronted by Anka, Paulo finds himself out on the street. Despite Ilir's misgivings, Paulo moves in with him. One day, when Paulo promises that he will love Ilir for the rest of his life, Ilir leaves the city and doesn't return. A few days later, Paulo finds out that Ilir is in jail, and the two lovers embark on an heart-breaking relationship.
A sleepy Montenegrin village, where most of the natives have emigrated to the US, is the setting for a bitter-sweet tale of three women fighting for autonomy. Suta resists pressure to marry her late husband’s autistic twin, Vezire and Drane must learn to coexist as their mutual husband plans to leave, and Fize tries to find a bride for her son. A stork’s arrival troubles the superstitious villagers.
Albania, 1996. Mira lives in Elbasan with her two sons while her husband works illegally in Greece. Struggling to make ends meet, she invests in a pyramid scheme, hoping for a better future. When close friends migrate, mira grows desperate and sells their apartment to reinvest, moving in with her parents. But the scheme collapses, the country falls into chaos, and mira loses everything. Her teenage son toni becomes violent, eventually arming himself during a riot. Fearing for their safety, Mira decides to flee Albania with her sons. After a dangerous journey, they arrive in Thessaloniki—lost, without Arben, but finally together. At the luna park, they find a fleeting moment of peace.
Two friends from Tirana attempt to solve a murder mystery at a Durrës resort while masquerading as wealthy men, encountering love interests, criminals, and self-doubt along the way as they navigate their first case as private detectives.
After losing their livelihood in a village, a Kosovar family is forced to move to the capital in pursuit of a place in a hypercapitalist society.