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

Italian premiere

The "sworn virgins" (burrnesh in the Albanian language) are women who vow chastity, wear masculine clothes and behave in all respects like a man. It is a very ancient tradition, part of the Kanun, the ancient Albanian unwritten code of law. Luana is in love with Agim. She grew up with him since childhood, but her father promised her to another boy, in an arranged marriage, without asking the girl about anything. To avenge the death of her father, killed by her betrothed to cover up the attempted violence against her, Luana decides to live the rest of her life as a male. The story is set in the mountains of Albania in the sixties, although it seems like a story from centuries ago. The murder of Luana's father unleashes a chain of blood and horror that seems unstoppable, if not with the death of the protagonists and their descendants, or with a heroic act of those who decide to break the last link of an archaic and patriarchal society . The film tells faithfully, even in the transposition of fiction, of the customs and traditions still alive in some isolated areas in the mountains of Albania.

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  Bujar Alimani

  A prolific director of the new Albanian cinema, he has made numerous prize-winning shorts and feature films. Among his best know works are Amnistia (Amnesty, 2011) and Krom (Chromium, 2015), both nominated for Oscars in the Best Foreign Film category and awarded prizes at prestigious international festivals.