A quiet drama abuzz with female liberation.
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A Kosovo war widow fights her patriarchal village for an independent life in this Sundance prizewinner.
More than 20 years ago, the Kosovo war with Serbia and Montenegro left 12,000 dead and more than 3,000 missing, mainly Kosovar Albanians. In
Hive (
Zgjoi), her first feature, writer-director Blerta Basholli is inspired by the true story of Fahrije Hoti, a single mother who, many years after her husband goes missing, is forced by economic necessity to face his loss. Instead of focusing on her emotional journey, Basholli crafts an engrossing, utterly classic tale of overcoming adversity around how she bucks the hide-bound town, gets out of the house and finds a job that will support her family.
film profile], which has just world-premiered in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival, tells the story of a lady in a small town who faces prejudice and uncertainty as she inspires the women in her community to take control of their own fate.
Fahrije (
Yllka Gashi, a true discovery in her first feature-film role) is a woman in her thirties whose husband, along with many other men from the village of Krushë e Madhe (or Velika Kruša in Serbian), died – or went missing – in a massacre during the Kosovo War in 1999. She lives with her father-in-law, Haxhi (