Directed by Kaltrina Krasniqi • 2021 • Kosovo

Kaltrina Krasniqi’s portrait of female resilience is one of the most vital Kosovan films of recent years. Vera (Teuta Ajdini Jegeni) is a middle-aged sign language interpreter whose life is thrown into disorder by her husband’s sudden suicide. A series of threatening men claiming ownership over the family’s village home push the traumatised widow and her daughter Sara (Alketa Sylaj) to the limit – but also provoke these women to realise their true agency. Inspired by her own mother’s legal struggles, Krasniqi’s poetic realist vision of a society caught between modernity and tradition ultimately resolves into a celebration of female solidarity.

VERA DREAMS OF THE SEA • VERA ANDRRON DETIN
Directed by Kaltrina Krasniqi
Written by Doruntina Basha
Cinematography by Sevdije Kastrati
Music by Petrit Çeku and Genc Salihu
Starring: Teuta Ajdini Jegeni, Alketa Sylaj, Refet Abazi

In Albanian with English subtitles

Nominated for Best Film in the Venice Horizons Award at the Venice Film Festival 2021.
Winner Grand Prize for Best film, Tokyo Film Festival 2021.