Film Archive

Bota

East of the West - Competition 2014 / Bota / Albania, Italy, Kosovo 2014

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.

Synopsis

Bota (Albanian for "the world”) is a cafe situated on the edge of a vast area of marshland in a remote part of Albania. The cafe is the focal point for the protagonists of this compelling debut by Iris Elezi and Thomas Logoreci. Affable Juli, the life and soul of the cafe, takes care of her sick grandmother Noje and has various financial worries; her greatest desire, however, is to leave the place that brought only misery upon her family. Her friend, the attractive, temperamental Nora, is trying to work through her relationship with a married man, the cafe’s enterprising owner and Juli’s cousin, Ben. When construction begins on a new motorway near the cafe, it seems as if big changes are ahead for all of them. The directors set their story in a godforsaken region where, during communist supremacy, enemies of the regime were sent with their entire families against their will. The filmmakers 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.

About the film

100 min / Color, DCP
World premiere
Director Iris Elezi, Thomas Logoreci / Screenplay Iris Elezi, Thomas Logoreci / Dir. of Photography Ramiro Civita / Editor Walter Fasano / Producer Sabina Kodra, Andrea Stucovitz / Production Erafilm Albania, Partner Media Investment / Coproduction Flexfilm, It's Continuum / Cast Flonja Kodheli, Fioralba Kryemadhi, Artur Gorishti, Luca Lionello, Tinka Kurti, Alban Ukaj / Contact Erafilm

About the director

Iris Elezi (Albania) graduated in film theory and criticism, anthropology, and women’s studies in the USA. In 2001 she finished up studies in film production at New York’s Tisch School of the Arts. She contributed to the six-part documentary series Under Construction (2007) as director and editor. At present she lives and works in Tirana, where she lectures in film analysis. Thomas Logoreci is an Albanian-American filmmaker. He served as producer and editor on Caveh Zahedi’s successful comedy I Am a Sex Addict (2005), shown at more than 30 festivals around the world. As DOP and editor he helped create Jay Rosenblatt’s experimental documentaries I Used to Be a Filmmaker (2004), Beginning Filmmaking (2008), and The Darkness of Day (2009). He co-scripted the film essay by renowned filmmaker Mark Cousins Here Be Dragons (2013).