The Silence of the Banana Trees

Tirana’s second biggest stadium is a socialist relic past its prime that has failed to keep up with the surrounding world. It rests in a state of limbo, silent and timeless. Built with over a million point clouds after scanning the entire stadium, this posthumanist film-poem is the result of a first contact with the perennial wildflowers that had sprouted in the abandoned fields of the stadium.

A father sends well-wishing voice messages to his filmmaker son confined in self-isolation far away from home during the Covid-19 pandemic.

While reading the diaries of his grandfather, imprisoned during the dictatorship of Hoxa in Albania, the director recognises the pigeon outside his window that kept him company during his incarceration. A short circuit that leads him to reflect on the open wounds of family history.

The two Albanian street performers and close friends, Besi and Rafael, have been traveling through Italy for years with their mime and acrobatics act as Ping and Pong. Sometimes they have trouble with the police, but more often they receive enthusiastic applause from their audience, who are eager to have their picture taken with the two likeable performers.