Daybreak
| Director | Gentian Koci |
| Writer | Gentian Koci |
| Camera | Ilias Adamis |
| Editor | Christos Giannakopoulous, Bonita Papastathi |
| Cast | Ornela Kapetani, Suzana Prifti, Kasem Hoxha, Hermes Kasimati, Adele Gjoka, Ermela Ruri |
| Sound | Xenophon Kontopoulos |
| Music | Mardit B. Lleshi |
| Producer | Gentian Koci – Artalb Film; Konstantina Stavrianou, Rena Vougiokalou – Graal Films |
| Original Title | DITA ZE FILL |
| Year | 2017 |
| Length | 85 min |
| Country | Albania, Greece |
| Subtitles | English |
| Section | EXCITING, CURRENT CINEMA |
| Screening | Friday 9 November | 22:00 hours | Filmhuis Den Haag Saturday 10 November | 19:00 hours | Filmhuis Den Haag |
Academy award nominee from Albania in 2017. A compelling contemporary drama of a single mother dealing with morality and compromises, in a struggle for survival in today’s Albania. Screenings will be followed by Q&A with the director Gentian Koçi. Dutch Premiere
Synopsis
Daybreak is a story on people’s day-by-day’s struggle to keep going on in a society. An universal story of a women, a single mother, abandoned by her family, who has to make difficult choices in order to provide a basic existence for a child and herself. A glimmer of hope appears when she is offered to take care of sick and old Sofie. To make sure she and her kid have food and a place to live, Leta must do her best to keep Sofie alive as long as possible. Faced with desperation, the young mum makes choices that might be seen as less moral or dubious. According to a director, his feature debut was filmed without a camera movements in order to “capture the raw reality of things”. This social drama won several prizes, including the Best Actress award at the Sarajevo Film Festival.
Festivals & Awards (selection)
Tirana International Film Festival, 2017 – Best Director | Sarajevo Film Festival, 2017 – Best Actress | Cinedays Skopje Film Festival, 2017 – Best Film of the CineBalkan Selection | Stockholm International Film Festival, 2017 | Cottbus Film Festival, 2017 | Thessaloniki International Film Festival, 2017 | Santa Barbara International Film Festival, 2017 | Las Palmas Film Festival, 2018 – Special Mention
Director’s bio
Gentian Koci graduated in Film Directing in 2009. He directed several short films which played at numerous international film festivals such as ANTENNA (2008), JINX IN A JIFFY (2009) – Best Film, SwiKos Film Festival in Basel, Switzerland and the nonfiction short, REVENGE (2011), supported by Goethe Institute. The same year he participated in the Berlinale Talent Campus. In 2012, Gentian Koci directed the documentary, NOT A CARWASH, which premiered in the official selection at Hot Docs, was nominated for the Special Jury Award at Sheffield Doc/Fest 2012 and was critically acclaimed by the reviews Sight & Sound and DOX Magazine. In June 2014, the premiere of his feature documentary, AJASO, A PHILOPERFORMANCE, was held at the University Paris-Sorbonne. DAYBREAK is his first feature film.