30. Film Festival della Lessinia
Bosco Chiesanuova (Italia)
23 August - 1 September 2024

With the arrival of spring, in northern Albania, it's time to move the goats in transhumance from the valley to the high mountains. Old Prek Gjoni waits for the snow on the mountain passes to melt, and then takes off from Valbona with his flock in search of greener pastures. He knows a trek of at least four days awaits him, and yet he takes with him only a pair of broken shoes and an old umbrella. Accompanying him are his young helper Jovalin and the director of the documentary, who decided to make this journey on foot after meeting Prek's family. The images link to the rhythm of their walking, and emphasize nature, both dilated and broken, capturing with a clear vision vistas of extraordinary beauty, the physical fatigue, and the singular bond that unites the old man to his animals and to the tradition of his profession, of which the inexpert Jovalin must become the heir.

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  Grégoire Verbeke

  A self-taught director and photographer, he earned a degree in classical philology from Ghent University in 2012. From 2013 to 2015 he was in Afghanistan as assistant director to Pieter-Jan De Pue on The Land of the Enlightened, shooting at the same time The Last Omelette, a documentary about the making of the film. Bjeshkë is his first short film.