Kthimi

Iliri, a young Albanian man, is looking for a better life. Without any perspective in his own country, he has illegally travelled to France under a fake visa. That’s where he meets Sabine and promptly decides to marry the French woman. Maybe because he really loves her, but maybe only because he wants to get a residence permit. They plan to travel to his home village in Albania celebrate the wedding there, so that he can safely and legally reenter France with his new passport. But the visit with his family turns out to be a collision of two worlds. Especially his father’s patriarchic and conventional notions put their young relationship to the test and Iliri has to ask himself how much of his homeland is still part of him. Director KastriotAbdyli has directed this bittersweet family drama with French flair and delivers a precise description of perpetual intergenerational disconnect. (Internationales Filmfest Oldenburg)