Sworn Virgin
Moving drama Sworn Virgin wipes away binaries of gender...Bispuri constructs a subtle, richly emotional collage. [Critic’s Pick]
Sworn Virgin
Hana Doda, still a girl, escapes her destiny of being a wife and a servant, a future imposed on women in the harsh mountains of Albania. Following her uncle’s guidance, she appeals to the old law of the Kanun, which gives women, taking an oath of eternal virginity, the chance to use rifles and live free as men. For everybody Hana becomes Mark, a “sworn virgin.”
But something alive pulses and frets under these new clothes. Her choice becomes her prison and those immense mountains seem so narrow now. Mark decides to set out on journey, too long put off. She leaves her land and arrives in Italy, where a new journey begins; a continuous and subtle path, crossing the line of two far away and different worlds: Albania and Italy, past and present, masculine and feminine.
Slowly Mark discovers her body again. She experiences the vertigo of touching other bodies and she finds caring, loving people life had denied her. She opens up to an unexpected and prohibited love’s chance.
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 creature.
But something alive pulses and frets under these new clothes. Her choice becomes her prison and those immense mountains seem so narrow now. Mark decides to set out on journey, too long put off. She leaves her land and arrives in Italy, where a new journey begins; a continuous and subtle path, crossing the line of two far away and different worlds: Albania and Italy, past and present, masculine and feminine.
Slowly Mark discovers her body again. She experiences the vertigo of touching other bodies and she finds caring, loving people life had denied her. She opens up to an unexpected and prohibited love’s chance.
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 creature.
Genre
Drama
Runtime
90
Language
Albanian,
Italian
Director
Laura Bispuri
Cast
Alba Rohrwacher,
Flonja Kodheli,
Bruno Shllaku,
Ilire Celaj,
Drenica Selimaj,
Dajana Selimaj,
Emily Ferratello
Awards:
Nominee, Teddy Award ~ Best Feature Film, Berlin International Film Festival
Nominee, Golden Bear, Berlin International Film Festival
FEATURED REVIEW
Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out
The arrestingly serene Alba Rohrwacher (I am Love) takes on her most ambitious role to date: an Albanian “sworn virgin,” one of that culture’s unmarried women who pledges to bind her breasts and live out her life as a man. The real-life setup is a knockout, both ancient and timely, and even though ...
Played at
Fine Arts Theatre 4.29.16 - 5.05.16
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