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.
Set in an area between the Yugoslavia and Albanian border in the year 1968, an idealist teacher wants to cross the border to Albania, where he believes he will find a state of ideal communism.
Two people meet up in jail when they come for monthly visits of their spouses. They fall in love after becoming witnesses to a wedding in jail but their relationship has to end because both their spouses get amnesty from the government.
The two Albanian filmmakers Vani and Kaçi are invited to attend the Venice International Film Festival. They have been close friends since childhood until now on their 60's. At the beginning of the trip from Bari to Venice, they meet two actresses who working in the adult movies industry. From this moment on, the four of them continue the trip to Venice together wich brings a lot of turmoil for the unequal travel company of two conservative Albanians and two open-minded ladies with such different views of life.
According to the law of physical elimination of stray dogs in exchange of a small monetary reward, two middle-aged Albanian ex-hunters, Nikolin and Enver, take a nocturnal journey throughout the city, which is soon interrupted by an unexpected turn of events.
"Sons of Cain" is set in a small village in northern Albania. In this place time is suspended and the severe rules of an old code (Kanun) still dictate the life and death of the inhabitants. A group of seven children obliged to live under this code meet and discuss the story of Cain and Abel. Creating their own dream space, partially consciously and partially not, they create an analogy between their own stories and Bible stories. Stuck on the fine line between reality and forgetfulness, this is one of the few chances they have to come to grips with their traumas and emotions.
