ZANA

Lume and her husband Ilir live with his mother in a village in Kosovo. The couple was once happy and in love, but not much remains of their joyous past: war and the death of their daughter have left them deeply shell-shocked. Now, Lume’s mother-in-law, among others, has been “encouraging” them to fill the family void with a new baby (preferably a boy!). Ilir and his mother put more and more pressure on Lume, who is otherwise fit as a fiddle and still fertile according to her doctor. No one seems interested in Lume’s opinion though. Society’s processing of the horrors and personal reverberations of war is the central factor determining traumatised Lume’s path through life. Where modern medicine fails to provide an explanation, faith is placed in healers, shamans, occult rituals and exorcism, instead of just once considering the potential reality of a psychological root cause. Even the husband multiplies his wife’s suffering, until it becomes unbearable, in his desperation to conform to society’s expectations. For director Antoneta Kastrati, Lume’s fate is representative of those of many women, mothers, widows and orphans – not only in relation to the war in Kosovo. A feature-film debut that deeply haunts both mind and heart.