SWORN VIRGIN

SWORN VIRGIN (VERGINE GIURATA), 2015

Albania, Italy, Switzerland, Kosovo | DCP, Color, 84’ |Albanian

Director:Laura Bispuri

Cast:Alba Rohrwacher, Emily Ferratello, Lars Eidinger

In her debut feature film, director Laura Bispuri approaches the subject of social gender roles through sworn virgins, a Balkan tradition. Residing in a small mountain village in Albania, Hana rejects the second class role bestowed to women in her community and decides to live as a sworn virgin. Henceforth, her name becomes Mark and she has the right to consume alcohol, use guns and hunt, in short to live like a man on the condition that she remains a virgin for the rest of her life. After living as a man for many years, Mark can no longer take it. He pays a visit to his sister in Italy where his struggle to keep up with the modern world, and to once again become Hana begins. This impressive production gives weight to visual narrative more than dialogues, drawing the audience in with camera moves and angles which recall that of a documentary film. Sworn Virgin had its world premiere at Berlinale.