Honeymoons

Director's Statement

During Enver Hodxa's cruel, forty-year dictatorship, no one from Serbia was allowed to visit neighboring Albania. Today, after the conflicts in Kosovo, there is still only a very small number of Serbs who decide to visit Albania. Prejudice and bad politics have contributed to a latent intolerance between the two nations.During my first stay in Albania in December of 2006,1 met many intellectuals who thought like I did, who were beyond any kind of fiery nationalism. I discovered that Albanians and Serbs, although they speak two completely different languages, have much in common, notedly the deep desire to become an integral part of Europe. During long conversations, the idea was born that we try, through our combined efforts, to make a movie, which I would direct with a mixed crew.I imagined the film as a triptych. The Albanian and the Serbian stories are about two young couples who wish to go to western Europe in the hope that they will have more chances there than in their home countries. Finally, the third part intertwines the destinies of these two couples. Their stories unwind in parallel and they never meet, as would usually be the case in standard films. However, I am convinced that at the end of the film viewers will have the impression that these young people, are in the same imaginary space, while they wait on the threshold of Europe; the Albanians in a port in southern Italy, and the Serbs on the Hungarian border in the backroom of a small railway station. Nevertheless, after the first bitter disappointment on the border of that so green "better" world, dawns a new morning for both.