Bota

Iris Elezi & Thomas Logoreci : 2014

Bota, Albanian for "the world", is a café situated on the edge of a vast area of marshland in a remote part of Albania. Affable Juli, the life and soul of the café, 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 café's enterprising owner and Juli's cousin, Ben. When construction begins on a new motorway near the café, it seems as if big changes are ahead for all of them. Set in a bleak region where, during communist supremacy, enemies of the regime were sent with their entire families against their will, the film evokes the atmosphere of a place where the past still encroaches upon people's lives. Iris Elezi and Thomas Logoreci's feature was winner of the FEDEORA Award when it premiered in the East of the West section at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2014.