Winner of the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay at the Berlin Film Festival, the second feature film from filmmaker Joshua Marston (Maria Full of Grace) is a quiet, mature and beautifully shot coming-of-age tale that explores family honor and the intersection between modernity and tradition. Set in Albania, the film follows two teenagers, Nik (Tristan Halilaj) and his sister Rudina (Sindi Lacej), as they deal with the accusation that their father and uncle have murdered a fellow villager. The uncle is immediately arrested, but their father escapes, leaving the family to observe a centuries-old code of law wherein Nik becomes a target of retribution.
According to the 15th century legal code, Kanun, the killing of a male member of a family may be avenged with the killing of a male of the murderer’s family. The only form of immunity from this rule is never leaving home. This leaves Nik no choice but to miss school and become a housebound prisoner. He builds walls to provide more safety and creates a makeshift weight set to keep entertained. What’s perhaps most painful is he misses his friends and seeing his school crush. In the meantime, his younger sister is forced to take over the family business of delivering bread by horse buggy to keep the family financially afloat. Very quickly, she needs to learn to become a shrewd business woman. The stress builds as time ticks away and the victim’s family refuses to relent with Nik’s father still on the run.