Albanian Films

Albania 1943: After the Italian surrender, the Germans occupy the country, so the peoples' situation becomes more and more chaotic. Harun Bonata, a clever trader with a big heart, hides three fugitives in his cellar: the partisan Quazim, the Jewish watchmaker Hoakin and the Italian soldier Giulio. Nevertheless, he makes a good deal with the German officer Franz...

The film unfolds the reality in a communist country in the 1970s through the eyes and wise ways of an ordinary gypsy. The events take place in a small town in Albania. Besides the well-organized civilized life, a strange Gypsy community is settled in the town. The calm flow of their life is troubled by the birth of a child. The son, who is the ninth child in this Gypsy family, will bring joy not only to his family, but to the entire gypsy community. What could possibly trouble the strong communist establishment of the time? A child is born but not an ordinary one. His name is Mao Tse Tung. A gypsy Mao Tse Tung in the 1970s.

A young man is searching for the war to free his country and establish freedom. Instead of war he finds the love of his life.

The events take place in a small Albanian village, around the 1930s. This isolated land, dominated by rituals and patriarchal relationships is the spirit that welcomes the newborn child of Abas. Servet, a co-villager, emigrant in the United States of America comes back in his homeland bringing a new vision and a new mentality, which serves as an inspiration for the 10 years old boy, Gjoleka, the son of Abas. Gjoleka founds himself in between of the ideas of his wild father, Abas and his godfather, Servet. Gjoleka symbolizes the young generation in the difficult realities that offer small and underdeveloped countries, where the outside world constitutes an irresistible attraction. The movie shows with a deep realism the human relationships, such as love, jalousie, hate, the impossibility to be integrated with another world, making this way a cruel autopsy of the weird society to which, "sometime" we belong.

It is 1961 and an Albanian student (Nik Xhelilaj) of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, together with a group of Czech students, is shooting his graduate movie on a motorcycle factory, in the small market-town of Cesky Sternberk, in then Czechoslovakia. Coming from a country that is completely isolated from the rest of Europe, he is fascinated by the lifestyle, society and "erotic exuberance" of the Czech golden youth, yet feeling strong links with his family in his homeland. He falls in love with a married woman (Anna Geislerová), the wife of a police superintendent (Paolo Buglioni) and is insecure about his future.

An amateur cycling team from Albania heads to France to take part in a tournament only to discover on the way that revolution has broken out back home.

In a country where tradition is constantly at war with modernity, Koll is a college student set on enjoying his youth to the fullest. When his father dies and he is forced to assume responsibility for an ancient crime, Koll is thrust into the gruesome, feudal heart of contemporary Albania.

'Honeymoons' shows us that the distance between Eastern and Western Europe is more than a question of kilometers. The films follows two couples, one is Albania, one in Serbia, who in the midst of wedding celebrations decide to leave their respective countries to realize their dreams in Western Europe. They soon find themselves trapped between their countries' past and their future lives together.

Handsome Albanian villager Arben wants to marry Etleva, daughter of a neighboring clan, but her father has promised her to another man who is offering a 10,000 Euros bride price. But when it turns out Etleva is carrying Arben's child, the pressure is on for him to come up with the dowry before the baby is born -- and before her brothers take revenge for the dishonor he has brought their family. Fleeing to Berlin without papers, experience or knowledge of the language, Arben soon learns the ways of survival.

Would you sell the bones of your father or grandfather, if this was a millionaire business? Jolie (French) and Orsola (Italian), discover in s village in the South of Albania, the most bizarre Bazaar where bones can be bought and sold. Why not profit, themselves, by selling the bones of their father and grandfather in exchange for true love? Our story is based on actual events, happened in the South of Albania years ago, based in the old Balkan saying: the place in which the grave of a compatriot has endured the trials of time, is a place worth dying for.

Conjugal visits unite strangers Elsa and Spetim meeting incarcerated spouses. They find companionship but prisoner amnesty threatens their bond.

Two men, a former ministry chief and his business partner, have less than 48 hours to save their jobs and reputations. An absurd chain of events threatens to destroy everyone in this fast paced crime thriller.

A young pharmacist enters into a casual relationship with a young woman alleged to be his father's secret mistress, in contemporary Tirana.

Two Albanian brothers migrate to Greece and try, each in his own way, to integrate into their host country by following two different lifestyles.

Albanian emigrant is precariously caught in Amsterdam among the promise and allure of the rich city, threats of ruthless drug dealers & sex traffickers.

Mentor Hasa, a senior officer of the State Security, finds himself from a "spy" into a tapped man and his life takes a dramatic turn. His last wish to his son, Martin, is that his story is told to the whole world.

One week at the Bota café. Nothing happens. Everything happens.

While a mute and lonely mother lives a life that is far from easy, she nevertheless bares her lot with dignity and courage. Her 15-year-old son is trying to stand on his own two feet, but in so doing he only complicates the grim situation in the family.

The story takes place in March 1999, Kosovo. it is the period of NATO bombing. Massive displacement of Albanians on ethnic basis. Terror, fear, insecurity, hunger has plagued Gjakova town located on the border with Albania. This does not exclude that along the narration the situations are built on a logic flow, moments of humor, eroticism, that occasionally avoid blackness of circumstances, which cross the theme of the film. The film initially develops in two parallel lines that then converge, connected to a common thread, where, at the end, each of the lines goes back to its own fate. It is a film for adults and children too.

In early March 1991, a number of ships laden with men, women and children appeared off the Adriatic coast of southern Italy. It was the beginning of the so-called "Exodus of the Albanians." Never before in the post-war period had a mass emigration of such proportions taken place. Who were they? What were they running away from? And where are they today, 20 years later?

On September 21, 2014 Pope Francis chose Albania for his first European visit to "a country that has long suffered the ideologies of the past". His voyage from Rome to Tirana lasts 50 years. A true dissection of the communist dictatorship and its war waged against freedom of thought and belief, the documentary makes use of historical footage juxtaposed to present day shootings, to tell a unique page of history of one of the only atheist country in the world through the narration of two protagonists: a Franciscan priest (who spent most of his life in prison) and a Cathedral (that became a sports palace.)

Andre starts as a teacher in a remote mountain village in Albania. His first task is to choose one of two communist slogans. He picks the shorter one, which is appreciated by his class, because they have to build the slogan on the hillside using whitewashed rocks. However, this means that the longer slogan goes to Diana, the French teacher to whom Andre is attracted. Andre gets on the wrong side of the communist party boss of the village, when he stands up for an unjustly accused goat herdsman, whom he had befriended. The boss is determined to take his revenge on Andre.

During the riots of 1997 in Albania the retired photographer PETRO travels from his hometown Gjirokastra to the capital Tirana. He has taken pictures of a killing with his Super-8-camera and wants to get the film developed. Petro doesn't know that he shot material that shows how a TV-camera causes the death of a man and his granddaughter in order to get a good story. Unfortunately Petro meets this cameraman - BERTI - on the trip to Tirana. When the film is finally developed Petro gets to know the truth - and he knows his life is in danger! After many adventures on the road he tries at last to present the film to the public. But he must realize that the material was stolen. So only Petro knows the truth while the media spread lies about the deaths of Girokastra...

A film tells the story of a young couple in post-communist Albania, at the time when many Albanians left the country in search for a better life abroad. The protagonist is Nik, who lives in the capital of Albania, Tirana, along with his mother and father. He is in love with a beautiful girl named Klara, who wants to move to Paris to be a model. Nik makes his living with an old truck that belonged to his father, who is now sick, and seemingly dying. Amidst the criticisms of his mother, the confusion and desperation covering the country, and the desire of his girlfriend to leave, Nik is still unsure whether he wants to leave. The film explores the way Nik handles the events of his life.