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A Feature Film By Antoneta Kastrati
A Feature Film By Antoneta Kastrati
A Feature Film By Antoneta Kastrati
A Feature Film By Antoneta Kastrati
This campaign is closed
ZANA
A Feature Film By Antoneta Kastrati
A Feature Film By Antoneta Kastrati
A Feature Film By Antoneta Kastrati
A Feature Film By Antoneta Kastrati
A Feature Film By Antoneta Kastrati
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LUME is an Albanian woman who lives with her husband, ILIR, and her mother-in-law, REMZIJE, in a Kosovar village. She has lost her only child a decade earlier in the war and is now haunted by night terrors and unable to get pregnant. Desperate for a child, the family abandons modern medicine and seeks a traditional healer who can cure her.
Lume’s visit to a local witch doctor only worsens her situation, as a prescribed animal sacrifice deepens old traumas. The family then goes deeper into debt to send Lume to Kosovo’s most famous healer. He performs an elaborate exorcism and cautions them that the suspicious witch doctor may have cursed Lume with black magic.
Soon Lume is pregnant, hopeful that she will again be a mother. But as the pregnancy progresses, Lume's tormented past and a dark secret come back to haunt her and her unborn baby.
In 1999, Antoneta and Sevdije Kastrati were teenagers, surviving the war in Kosovo and the massacres that swept through their village. The two sisters would go on to become an accomplished filmmaking team, with Antoneta as a writer/director and Sevdije as a cinematographer. Together with their American partner and producer, Casey Cooper Johnson, they founded Crossing Bridges Films and have created dozens of documentaries and short narrative films. After the three completed studies at the American Film Institute, their focus has been on fictional storytelling. Zana will be their first feature film collaboration.
Zana is a fictional story inspired by my own personal tragedy during the Kosovo War, my battle with post-war trauma and nightmares. The question that has stayed with me is how can one become a mother again, when rendered powerless to protect their child.
Post-war Kosovo, while a rapidly modernizing nation, still has one foot rooted in the mystic. In Zana, the shadowy world of dreams and terrors is set against a traditional village mentality, one that lacks the language to address the deep wounds of war, but instead turns to magic for its answers. It is a dark and twisted look at a family and community that prescribes an archaic treatment for a woman suffering from loss.
Zana was one of nine projects to participate in the MIDPOINT Feature Launch program for 2017, and was selected for the MIDPOINT Development Award and the Connecting Cottbus Award.
With the majority of our financing in place from the Kosovo Cinematography Center and the Albanian National Center of Cinematography, along with in-kind support from Panavision and the Municipality of Peja, we are now in full pre-production.
We have attached the talented Adriana Matoshi (Sundance Winner: The Return, Babai) and Astrit Kabashi (Babai, Oscar Nominated: Shok), starring in our movie. We are currently completing casting and will new announcements of new cast members throughout the campaign.
We are putting together a phenomenal crew made up of the most talented film professionals from Kosovo, Macedonia, Albania and the greater South East Europe region.
Finally, we are actively scouting shooting locations in the Peja region where Antoneta and Sevdije grew up. Some exciting location photos to follow.
With 70% of our budget raised, we are so close to reaching our goal and starting production. With your help, we will be ready to do a winter pre-shoot (in the snow) in January 2018, followed by principal photography in May 2018.
Here’s what your contributions will finance:
Antoneta Kastrati is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker from Kosovo. After the war in 1999, she began making films that addressed issues of post-war society. An alum of AFI, she has directed a dozen documentaries and narrative shorts. Her documentary Seeking Magic (2008) explored the real world of mystical healers in Kosovo. Her most recent short She Comes in Spring (2013) premiered at Busan Film Festival. She recently won the Development Award for Zana at the MIDPOINT Feature Launch 2017.
Casey lived for 10 years in post-war Kosovo, producing documentaries the syndicated current affairs show, Life in Kosovo. At AFI, Johnson wrote and directed the short film Unmanned (2011), which screened at AFI Fest and Tribeca. He has participated in the Film Independent Labs and the Rotterdam Lab. He is currently a Creator and EP of the upcoming Oculus VR series, Campfire Creepers and is Co-Director/EP of Urban Nightmares, a new series on the blackpills channel.
Sevdije is the first female DP in her home country, Kosovo. Shooting since 2001, her body of work includes documentaries, TV series and narrative films. In 2011, she completed her master studies in cinematography at AFI. In 2012, her film The Return won Best International Short at Sundance Film Festival. She has shot four feature films, The Spearhead Effect (2016), The Marriage (2017), Cold November (2018) and most recently, Open Door (2018). Sevdije and her sister, Antoneta, have worked together as filmmakers throughout their entire careers.
Shawn is a member of the Art Director's Guild in Los Angeles and is a production design alum of AFI. He has served as an assistant art director on large budget Hollywood feature films Terminator: Genisys (2015), The Last With Hunter (2015), Rampage (2018), and TV series Into The Badlands (2015) and Halt & Catch Fire (2016). His first designed feature film Big Significant Things premiered at the 2014 SXSW Film Festival and was distributed by Oscilloscope Films. He has an established relationship with Antoneta and Sevdije, having designed the narrative short, She Comes in Spring (2013).
Besnik is a Kosovar producer who line produced the Oscar Nominated short film, Shok (2015), as well as the completed feature film, The Marriage (2017). He served as Unit Production Manager for the recent feature, Distant Angels (2016). He is Producer of the upcoming feature, Field of Blackbirds and is Co-Producer on the Albanian feature, Open Door. He has participated in the MAIA Workshop and the 2017 EAVE Producers Workshops.
Adriana is a rising star actress who first found acclaim with her lead role in The Return, which won the Best International Short Film at Sundance Film Festival 2012. She has since gone on to play unforgettable roles in Babai (2015), which was nominated for consideration in the European Film Awards and the upcoming movies, The Marriage (2017) and Cold November (2018).
Astrit Kabashi is an established and critically acclaimed Kosovar actor, best known for his award winning lead role in Babai (2015) for which Kabashi won Best Actor at the Munich Film Festival. He also played a supporting role in the Oscar nominated short film Shok (2015). At home, he is well known for his acting and writing on Kosovo’s long running sitcom Our Cafe.
QKK, Kosovo’s national film fund, has supported Zana first through a Development Grant of €5,000 in 2015, and most recently a Production Grant of €130,000. This initial financing from QKK has paved the way for us to gather more support from neighboring countries and the European film industry.
Panavision has been providing premier cameras and lenses to the Hollywood movie industry for 60 years. Through their New Filmmaker Grant, Panavision is proud to support the production of Zana with a camera and lens package for the shoot.
The movie will be shot in the Peja region of Kosovo, where Antoneta and Sevdije grew up. The Municipality's Department of Culture has offered logistical support, including accommodation and food for the cast and crew, production vehicles, office space and public locations.
Albania’s national film fund has selected Zana in its most recent round of financing for Minority Co-production.
Owned by producer, Dritan Huqi, On Film Production has produced titles like The Albanian (2010), Amsterdam Express ( 2014) and Distant Angels (2017). Huqi is a member of the European Film Academy and was selected for “Producers on the Move” in 2011.
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Watch She Comes in Spring (2013), Antoneta’s thesis short film from AFI Directing Workshop for Women.