The Lock

Far away from war, two destroyed families wander between the shore and the sea towards an unknown future. A film by the great Albanian director Bujar Alimani, most known for his film ‘Amnesty’, and filmmaker Erand Sojli. Dutch Premiere

Synopsis

Arian, a 40-year-old Albanian, goes to pick up the personal belongings of his son who has lost his life in a terrorist attack. Accidentally, at the parking lot of the building, he encounters two Syrian refugees, Asia and her daughter Leila. He decides to help them and give them shelter at a local hotel in Tirana’s suburbs. There they encounter the first of many prejudices people have towards Muslims. The receptionist refuses to accept them as guests of the hotel, even though he’s been offered money. Arian decides to take the girls home and gives them his wife’s clothes and murdered son’s pyjamas. The situation gets tense when his wife arrives home…

Director’s statement

A war, however far in time and distance it might exist, independently from where we live, harms our inner existence and provokes even greater war: the war with ourselves, in order to win over the fears that are born through egoism and prejudice. Two worlds, two different cultures. One of them likes the wild sea, whose waves want to invade the un-stepped earth of the other world, a peaceful one. Over the separation of these two worlds, on the mixed, soft and uncertain shore lie the past, the present and the future.