WHAT REMAINS, WHAT CHANGED - Short Film Block II
WHAT REMAINS, WHAT CHANGED - Short Film Block II
Sun 13 9 | 12:00 Kino REX
Sun 13 9 | 12:00 Kino REX
Twenty-five years after his abduction during the Kosovo War, painter Skender Muja recounts a story of extraordinary survival. In the tumultuous final months of the war, Muja and numerous Albanian citizens from Mitrovica were captured while fleeing Kosovo. Detained in a repurposed school-turned-detention center, they faced fear, confinement, and an uncertain fate.
Narrated by Muja, the film blends his reflections on the transformative power of art with reenactments of his experience. I Believe the Portrait Saved Me is a testament to resilience, illustrating how creativity can emerge as a tool of survival even in the most oppressive conditions.
Alban Muja (b. 1980, Mitrovica) is a Kosovan contemporary artist and filmmaker based between Berlin and Prishtina. His practice is deeply shaped by the social, political, and economic transformations of the region, examining the intersections between personal narratives and collective memory.
In 2019, Muja represented the Republic of Kosovo at the 58th Venice Biennale with Family Album, a three-channel moving-image installation.
His latest film, Mua besoj më shpëtoi portreti (I Believe the Portrait Saved Me), has been screened internationally at major festivals, including its world premiere at the 75th Berlinale – Forum Expanded in Berlin, Germany.
| Director | Alban Muja |
| Duration | 10 min |
| Language | OV Albanian | English |
| Genre | Short, Documentary |
| Country | Kosovo |
| Year | 2025 |
| Distributor | Film Director |
At a remote train station, 30-year-old Drin lives a solitary, routine life, recording trains and finding connection with his online girlfriend. But when his job is suddenly replaced by a radar, Drin finds himself spiralling into an existential crisis. Lost and out of place, he’s forced to confront what he truly wants in life.
Anita Morina is a Kosovar-Croatian writer, director, and producer. After completing her Master’s in Film and Television Production in Cambridge, UK, she had her start in television before moving into the film industry. In the same year, she premiered her two shorts, One Woman Film and SOS, the latter winning Best National Film, and is currently developing her first feature, Lucky Us. In 2021, she founded Little House, where she has since produced award-winning fiction and animation. She is also developing projects at Filmik Institue, an independent film hub in Kosovo.
| Director | Anita Morina |
| Duration | 15 min |
| Language | OV Albanian | English |
| Genre | Short, Documentary |
| Country | Kosovo |
| Year | 2025 |
| Distributor | Little House |
Set against the backdrop of Albania’s dictatorship-era past, this film explores the enduring grip of state propaganda, where art became a tool of control seeping from public monuments into private memory. Filmmaker Ermela Teli reveals how official narratives shaped not only collective beliefs but also the most intimate aspects of daily life. She reflects on art, censorship, and the symbolic absence of rain in socialist realism where even weather was manipulated to uphold the illusion of a perfect socialist Albania. Drawing from personal experience and family archives, Teli uncovers how ideology subtly distorted even home movies, shaping identity, relationships, and self-perception. Blending personal reflection with cultural history, the film dismantles the regime’s visual language from within. By reworking archival sound and image, Teli transforms propaganda’s tools into instruments of resistance, crafting a poetic counter-narrative that reclaims memory and reimagines freedom.
Ermela Teli is an Albanian-born filmmaker currently based in Switzerland. Born in Tirana, Albania, she pursued her passion for the arts from an early age. Ermela’s journey began as an actress, with her role as the protagonist in Tirana Year Zero which represented Albania at the Venice International Film Festival. Her career expanded over the years, both in front of the camera and behind it, as she worked at the National Theater of Albania for eight years. After completing her studies at the Academy of Arts in Tirana and earning a Master’s in Film and Television Directing, Ermela transitioned into directing. She delves deeply into themes of personal and collective memory, history, and politics, exploring these ideas through various mediums, including film, documentary, photography, sound recordings, and installations.
| Director | Ermela Teli |
| Duration | 42 min |
| Language | OV Albanian | English, German |
| Genre | Documentary |
| Country | Albania |
| Year | 2025 |
| Distributor | Film Director |
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