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Zana 15 rating

Haunted by her long-suppressed past, a Kosovar woman struggles to reconcile the expectations of motherhood with a legacy of wartime brutality.

Drama 2019 96 mins

Director: Antoneta Kastrati

Overview

Lume (Adriana Matoshi) is relentlessly pressured by her mother-in-law Remzije (Fatmire Sahiti) to fulfil her wifely duties and produce a child, even to the point of Remzije threatening to seek a younger wife for her son (Astrit Kabashi) to consider. Bowing under the pressure of being replaced, Lume abandons modern medicine and seeks the help of witch doctors and mystic healers to treat her infertility. Lume's appointments soon yield results as she finds herself pregnant at last. But while the family celebrates, Lume's long-suppressed traumas from the war slowly rise to torment her, and extreme caution must be taken to protect the unborn child.

Weaving in elements of the supernatural and horror-film iconography, Antoneta Kastrati draws on her own tragic family history for her first narrative feature, a powerful meditation and striking photographed meditation on the pervasiveness of patriarchy and the disseminating legacy of trauma.