Hana Doda, still a girl, escapes from her destiny of being a wife and a servant, a future imposed on women in remote village life in Albania. With the help of her uncle’s guidance, Hana appeals to the old Kanun traditional law and takes an oath of eternal virginity for the chance to bear a rifle and live free as men. For the villagers, Hana becomes Mark, a “sworn virgin”. But something restless stirs under these men’s clothes. Years later, the immense Albanian mountains and her choice now seem like a prison. Mark decides to set out on a journey, too long put off. He travels to Italy, crossing borders into many different worlds: Albania and Italy, past and present, masculine and feminine.
Slowly Mark begins to experience the vertigo of discovering his body, touching other bodies. She finds caring, loving people life had taken away, and opens up to an unexpected chance of love, which the Kanun had denied her. Mark rediscovers Hana, finally piecing back together the two souls that for years have lived inside her body. She is reborn as a new, free and complete person.
Trailer
Directed by
Produced by
Vivo film and Colorado Film with Rai Cinema, Bord Cadre films, Match Factory Productions, Era Film
in co-production with RSI Swiss Radiotelevision, in collaboration with Istituto Luce Cinecittà, Pretty Pictures, with the support of Eurimages, Ministero dei beni e delle attività culturali e del turismo – Direzione generale per il cinema, BLS Business Location Südtirol – Alto Adige, Film-und Medienstiftung NRW, KCC Kosovo Cinematography Center, Regione Lazio – Fondo Regionale per il Cinema e l’Audiovisivo, in association with Banca del Fucino and Aleteia Communication, developed with the support of the Media Program of the European Union.
Cast
Hana/Mark: Alba Rohrwacher
Lila: Flonja Kodheli
Bernhard: Lars Eidinger
Stjefen: Luan Jaha
Gjergj: Bruno Shllaku
Katrina: Ilire Celaj
Little Hana and little Lila: Drenica and Dajana Selimaj
Jonida: Emily Ferratello
Crew
Produced by: Marta Donzelli, Gregorio Paonessa, Maurizio Totti, Alessandro Usai, Dan Wechsler , Michael Weber, Viola Fügen, Sabina Kodra and Robert Budina
Story and screenplay: Francesca Manieri and Laura Bispuri
Cinematography: Vladan Radovic
Editing: Carlotta Cristiani, Jacopo Quadri
Original soundtrack: Nando di Cosimo
Set design: Ilaria Sadun
Costumes: Grazia Colombini
Technical data
Year: 2015
Running time: 90 min
Country: Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Albania in collaboration with Kosovo
Language: Albanian, Italian
Festivals and awards
Berlin International Film Festival – Official competition
Tribeca Film Festival – Nora Ephron award
Hong Kong International Film Festival – Firebird award
San Francisco International Film Festival – Golden Gate New Directors award
Krakow Film Festival – FIPRESCI award
Globo d’Oro 2015 “Best First Feature” award
Nominated to the David di Donatello and Nasti d’Argento awards as “Best First Feature”