[ALBSA-Info] Reuters - Rare Kosovo film highlights province's problems

[krenar at juno.com]

 Rare Kosovo film highlights province's problems
Thu Aug 25, 2005 10:36 AM ET


By Nedim Dervisbegovic
SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Kosovo's first film since the 1999 war tells the
story of three mental patients let loose from an asylum after the
collapse of Serb rule.
Kosovo Albanian director Isa Qosya, who has not made a film for 17 years,
said "Kukumi" was his way of showing how years of ethnic conflict had
dehumanised people in the region.
The film, shot entirely in Kosovo, received its world premiere late on
Wednesday at the Sarajevo Film Festival.
"I felt uneasy during the first years of this whirlwind and felt a
certain dehumanisation of people who did not understand and help each
other," Qosya told a news conference.
"The whole movie is a metaphor. Freedom is when you help someone and when
you understand the other person too," he added.
The three main characters are two men and a woman -- Kukumi, Hasan and
Mara.
Despite coming from a mental institution, they often appear to cope
better than others with life in postwar Kosovo, with its ethnic tensions,
U.N. bureaucrats and the foreign troops who occupied the province.
But a misunderstanding with NATO forces raises the question of whether
the characters were better off inside the asylum.
"The role of NATO troops in Kosovo has had positive but also some
negative consequences," Qosya said. "I can't understand their role now;
it has become totally undefined." 
FUTURE UNCERTAIN
Qosya said the province's problems stemmed partly from uncertainty over
the future.
Kosovo is still legally part of Serbia. The Serbian government and
Kosovo's now-tiny Serbian minority hotly oppose the independence Kosovo
Albanians want.
Talks over the final status of the province are expected to start this
year or next, depending on progress on issues including human rights and
democracy in one of Europe's poorest corners.
"Everything is undefined, and that is accompanied by a lack of character
and principle among the people," Qosya said.
Through a simple plot and sparing dialogue, the director portrays the
tensions between those people who left Kosovo during Serb rule and the
war and those who stayed on throughout.
The main characters seem most at ease when left undisturbed in
uninhabited settings, such as when they drive a railway car along
deserted tracks, gaze at a lake in an abandoned quarry or convert a
rundown stable into their home.
Qosya said he had difficulty raising funds for the movie in a region
struggling to provide the population with basic services like health
care. But eventually Kosovo's authorities agreed to foot the 600,000 euro
bill.
Croatia's Jadran Film provided the equipment, and the all-Albanian cast
and Qosya worked without pay. "Kukumi" is in the competition programme
for the best regional movie award at the Sarajevo festival.



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