Tristan Halilaj

Young Kristo lives in a village at the edge of gorgeous Lake Prespa, a body of water divided on the borders of three Balkan countries Albania, Macedonia and Greece. In order to support his family, Kristo has become a small-time marijuana smuggler, using his boat and knowledge of the lake waters to transport drug packages from the Albanian to the Macedonian side.

After losing their livelihood in a village, a Kosovar family is forced to move to the capital in pursuit of a place in a hypercapitalist society.

After convincing his friends to perform in their drag outfits at a night club owned by a very homophobic businessman, things go awry when their performance is stopped suddenly by a wardrobe malfunction and their true identities are revealed, putting all their lives in instant peril.

Zoe and Volta, childhood friends from a remote village, move to Pristina to pursue their studies. Full of dreams and youthful idealism, they befriend a group of rebellious, anti-establishment activists determined to make their voices heard. Amidst the social and political tensions of Kosovo in 2007, on the brink of independence, they navigate a country in turmoil—one searching for its identity while its youth remain overlooked.

A family surviving in a totalitarian dystopia is faced with the dilemma of reporting a family of immigrants who suddenly seek their help or preserve human dignity by endangering their own safety.

Genc, an out of work fringe blogger devoted to anonymous research, lives with his partner Bora in Prishtina, Kosovo. While Genc holds on to hopes for a brighter future, Bora, burdened by financial strain, unfulfilled dreams, and fed up with his detachment, storms out after a heated argument. Now he must find where she’s gone before it’s too late for them.

In 1990, a European delegation comes to Tirana to monitor the reforms of the communist regime. A government official is sent on a mission to a faraway prison in order to bring an important dissident back to the capital.

Four actors travel illegally through Balkan borders in war times to a theatre festival. But their real mission is to find their idol Michael Palin.

After the disappearance of a young actress, a director is left alone with memories, guilt, and the silence she left behind. In an attempt to understand what happened, he confronts himself, the past, and an unknown figure who seems to have always been there. Chronicles of Sonatine or: Shadows of the Broken Memories is a story built on half-truths and the people who get lost within them. Can you restore a memory… without distorting it?

Living in a crowded, multi-generational household in a small village in Kosovo, the quiet teenager Venera can rarely find privacy. However, when she befriends the rebellious Dorina, a new, liberating world opens up to her. Slowly, Venera begins to push against her conservative family’s expectations.

Lis, a 10-year-old boy, whose father is a missing person from the Kosovo war, lives cramped in a small apartment with his family during early 2000. Trying to forget a secret only he knows, Lis joins a French trio of clowns who are in Kosovo to entertain the children of the land. Soon enough Lis will learn that reality will catch up with everyone, and he will have to face his suppressed emotions.

Mira and Klodi, a young Albanian couple arrive in Marseille with a crucial mission. As they face a fateful appointment and a room full of waiting men, time is of the essence. As they confront the urgency of their choice, they must also confront the growing need to let go of each other.

A quiet routine unfolds in an absurd world, where a man drifts between dreams of dancing to disco hits with the love of his life and the reality of working as a gravedigger in a cemetery.

A seventeen-year-old boy and his younger sister’s dreams and aspirations are put on hold when their father is accused of murder.

Syla, a tortured former political prisoner from Kosova, realizes that his political idealism destroyed his life. After twenty years of mundane life in London, he returns home to confront his troubled past.

A former war photographer tries to ward off his personal ghosts by taking pictures of trees only. He lives alone among olive trees in southern Italy. One day he decides to cross the sea. Once in Albania, he goes near the location where he had made his last war picture, as if he was retracing his steps. He finds a tree he wants to photograph. He is just about to do so, when he discovers a runaway girl hiding in it with the sole objective of crossing the sea and getting to the other side. The man has no choice. He has to flee with her, follow her and guide her along until a storm separates them.

Bota (Albanian for “the world”) is a cafe situated on the edge of a vast area of marshland in a remote part of Albania, and it is here that the lives of the protagonists intersect in this compelling debut by Iris Elezi and Thomas Logoreci. The directors skilfully exploit the genius loci of the desolate landscape and, aided by a period score and beguiling long shots, they flawlessly evoke the atmosphere of a place where the past still encroaches upon people’s lives.

Two friends from Tirana attempt to solve a murder mystery at a Durrës resort while masquerading as wealthy men, encountering love interests, criminals, and self-doubt along the way as they navigate their first case as private detectives.

Leon, from Frankfurt, returns to his native Albania after 20 years to scatter his deceased grandfather's ashes in the sea and is forced to confront his past and the family he never wanted to see again.