Zana

Torn between the demands of the patriarchal family to become a mother and the traumas of the recent war, a Kosovar woman is sliding into the whirlpool of nightmares while trying to find a way out. This year’s Kosovo Oscar candidate is an intimate story about the legacy of wartime brutality, inspired by the real-time experience of the filmmakers.
The screening will be accompanied by video intro and Q&A with the director Antoneta Kastrati. Dutch Premiere

Synopsis

Lume, lives with her husband, Ilir, and mother-in-law, Remzije, in their small Kosovar village. Haunted by night terrors, childless and unable to get pregnant, Lume is relentlessly pressured by Remzije to fulfil her wifely duties – if Lume cannot produce a child, her mother-in-law threatens, it will be Remzije’s responsibility to bring in a younger and more eager prospective wife for her son to consider. Although she’s questioning whether she even wants to get pregnant, Lume submits herself to the series of sessions with local mystics and healers in order to please her family. Beautifully filmed in the nature surrounding the isolated village, the scenery highlights how distant she has become to the world around her, a world that chooses not to help women face their war traumas. Feeling abandoned, she continues to live her wartime nightmares throughout days and nights, until discovery of a tape hidden by Remzije changes her life for good. Zana is filmed in the home village of director Antoneta Kastrati and cinematographer Sevdije Kastrati whose mother and sister were killed during the war in Kosovo.