Shame and Money

DUTCH PREMIERE

After a family betrayal costs them their livelihood, a farming couple from rural Kosovo move to the capital Pristina, where the struggle to survive tests the limits of their pride and dignity.

Hatixhe and Shaban, a couple in their 40s, live with their extended family in rural Kosovo, making a modest living on their farm. Following a familial dispute, their source of income is suddenly lost, forcing them to move to Pristina. There, the pressure to provide for their family weighs heavily as they struggle to find work and a place to stay. As stability slips away, Shaban faces the difficult choice between pride and survival. A Sundance-winning drama about poverty, dignity and social inequality, Shame and Money is a powerful portrait of a family fighting for self-determination in a society dominated by money and power.

SCREENINGS

Wednesday 4 November 19:00 – opening film (by invitation only)
Wednesday 4 November 19:30 – opening film (regular screening)

Followed by a cocktail kindly offered by the Embassies of Kosovo, Slovakia and Ukraine

Programme section(s): Opening Film | Cinema Current
Original title: Shame and Money | Year: 2026 | Runtime: 129′
Country: Germany, Kosovo, Slovenia, Albania, North Macedonia, Belgium | Language: Albanian | Subtitles: English
Cast: Astrit Kabashi, Flonja Kodheli, Kumrije Hoxha, Fiona Gllavica, Alban Ukaj
Director: Visar Morina | Production: Pia Hellenthal, Visar Morina – Vicky Bane; Fabian Altenried, Sophie Ahrens, Kristof Gerega – Schuldenberg Films; Eagle Eye Films Kosova, Vertigo, On Film Production, List Production, Quetzalcoatl | Screenplay: Visar Morina, Doruntina Basha | Cinematography: Janis Mazuch | Editing: Joëlle Alexis

FESTIVALS & AWARDS (SELECTION) 

Sundance Film Festival 2026 – Grand Jury Prize (World Cinema Dramatic) | Guadalajara International Film Festival, 2026 | Sydney Film Festival, 2026 | Munich Film Festival, 2026 – CineMasters Award | Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, 2026 | Sarajevo Film Festival, 2026

DIRECTOR’S BIO 

Visar Morina was born in Pristina, Kosovo. He graduated in Film Direction from the Academy of Media Arts Cologne, Germany, in 2010. His feature films and short films have premiered at the Berlinale, Sundance, Locarno and Karlovy Vary, and have won several awards, including the German Film Academy Award for Best Screenplay and the Heart of Sarajevo for Exile (2020), as well as Best Director at Karlovy Vary for Babai (2015). In 2020, he was listed as Variety’s 10 Europeans to Watch.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

When I started with the script, I was very much thinking of a kind of fairytale. The two main characters reminded me of my parents – not of them 30 years ago, but what they would be like living now. It was clear very quickly that the basis of the story would be money. When I did research, I was talking to these guys who stand on the street [looking for work], and one guy said something that deeply moved me: “Even your mom doesn’t love you when you’re broke.”