It's so odd that nobody yet wrote a review about this cinematographic masterpiece. It's so beautifully shot. The characters are so real, no overacting which otherwise is the biggest problem in my opinion for the balkan movies. It's harsh and simple like the life proves to be in this region.
The nature around the Prespa lake is very well exposed, those stunning views!
It made me think of a non commercial version of an Italian mafia movie with Balkan taste and focus pointed on the teenagers and how they handle this reality.
I had almost no experience with Albanian cinema but this movie definitely made me wish to see more.
Thank you, I enjoyed it!
3 Reviews
a boy. his lake
Kirpianuscus10 April 2021
The main virtue of film is the performance of Ariton Polojani. Precise in each detail. The second - the honest reflection of naked reality. It is not a revelation, many scenes are good kicks to other films but it is well crafted and the mix of the nuances of an age and the cold reality, the portrait of friendship, grandparents, affection for teacher, revenge are proposed are just profound inspired. Image of a world, coldness / cruelty/ cynismus of a life style, it is just a fair support to remind and accept.
Balkan Samurai
t_lozeva1 January 2022
Warning: Spoilers
A 14-year-old boy from an Albanian village on Lake Prespa lives with his grandfather and grandmother, his parents are abroad for earning money to build a hotel on the lake. And he somehow connects to a network of drug dealers across the lake. The action is take place in Macedonia, Albania, and also has some Greek drug dealers involved.
The boy is in love with his beautiful teacher. ( the actress is real Albanian princess) He silently carries drugs with his fishing boat, because everyone around him wants to "make money" and has a dream to build a hotel on the shores of the lake and tourists to walk.
His partner has a beautiful wife and mother in the village and the little one helps them meet secretly on an island with a church named "Small Town" in alabanian part, and they also has an island "Big town " in Macedonia.
But another partner calls the police and betrays his friend. He uses the boy to bring him using the lie that his mother is dying and wants to see him. Seeing how wrong he made doing this, how Pasko was being killed before his eyes, and how his last words were "Judas," the little one shuddered. He's not guilty, but the whole village thinks he is. They refuse to even fix his bike. He decides to punish him. Take revenge . Talk to him, understand the truth, set fire to his house, take the drug and hand it over to the dealers, took the money. Made up to some other band kills the greedy partner..Certainly, for the Albanians, this might be very funny in the end .he tricked the bad ones.. and won. Even money wasn't the main reason. He scattered it freely It's serious and a little funny for me too .The little boy in 14 was like "Home Alone", he played amazingly well, was serious like Alexander the Great himself, brave and determined in every action. A film is made almost without words, but with a lot of meaning.
It has to do with the "Kanun" . According to their unwritten law, no one has the right to pass on his word "Besa"", especially given word to a friend, and especially to call the police and not the village court. " This comes from Turkish times, when they kept the community authentically, anarchistic,ly and independently of the Ottoman government and state. The punishment was determined by the elders, but often the people themselves could carry out the punishment themselves, relatives avenged the murder, men took blood for insults or lows, and everything happened according to the code of honor, similar to the Japanese code "Bushido" written 1000 years ago for Albanian men. In one way, things look tragic, but from the other, it can be said that this kind of Albanian man can be called a Balkan samurai. Because he knows what to do and he does it without words and explanations . Brutal justice, vendetta without mercy, everything in pastoral colors and in a beautiful calm lake, with rural relatives, neighbors, and friends , as if drugs are not a problem and are just part of life and survival for these people.
Everything is part of survival and community, in order and harmony, as in the Asian Tao. It is no good or bad, and everything is all-encompassing and wonderful as long as there is natural movement, nature, and life.
He was brave enough to look into the eyes of the huge man, a friend of the teacher, and handed him the fish as if he had nothing to be ashamed of. That he had come from another city to bring a gift to a woman especially in her home. Without blink. This also shows the ancient man's way of life" man is always a man, even on 14 and has right to choose a wife he likes. Old ways of things .
The boy is in love with his beautiful teacher. ( the actress is real Albanian princess) He silently carries drugs with his fishing boat, because everyone around him wants to "make money" and has a dream to build a hotel on the shores of the lake and tourists to walk.
His partner has a beautiful wife and mother in the village and the little one helps them meet secretly on an island with a church named "Small Town" in alabanian part, and they also has an island "Big town " in Macedonia.
But another partner calls the police and betrays his friend. He uses the boy to bring him using the lie that his mother is dying and wants to see him. Seeing how wrong he made doing this, how Pasko was being killed before his eyes, and how his last words were "Judas," the little one shuddered. He's not guilty, but the whole village thinks he is. They refuse to even fix his bike. He decides to punish him. Take revenge . Talk to him, understand the truth, set fire to his house, take the drug and hand it over to the dealers, took the money. Made up to some other band kills the greedy partner..Certainly, for the Albanians, this might be very funny in the end .he tricked the bad ones.. and won. Even money wasn't the main reason. He scattered it freely It's serious and a little funny for me too .The little boy in 14 was like "Home Alone", he played amazingly well, was serious like Alexander the Great himself, brave and determined in every action. A film is made almost without words, but with a lot of meaning.
It has to do with the "Kanun" . According to their unwritten law, no one has the right to pass on his word "Besa"", especially given word to a friend, and especially to call the police and not the village court. " This comes from Turkish times, when they kept the community authentically, anarchistic,ly and independently of the Ottoman government and state. The punishment was determined by the elders, but often the people themselves could carry out the punishment themselves, relatives avenged the murder, men took blood for insults or lows, and everything happened according to the code of honor, similar to the Japanese code "Bushido" written 1000 years ago for Albanian men. In one way, things look tragic, but from the other, it can be said that this kind of Albanian man can be called a Balkan samurai. Because he knows what to do and he does it without words and explanations . Brutal justice, vendetta without mercy, everything in pastoral colors and in a beautiful calm lake, with rural relatives, neighbors, and friends , as if drugs are not a problem and are just part of life and survival for these people.
Everything is part of survival and community, in order and harmony, as in the Asian Tao. It is no good or bad, and everything is all-encompassing and wonderful as long as there is natural movement, nature, and life.
He was brave enough to look into the eyes of the huge man, a friend of the teacher, and handed him the fish as if he had nothing to be ashamed of. That he had come from another city to bring a gift to a woman especially in her home. Without blink. This also shows the ancient man's way of life" man is always a man, even on 14 and has right to choose a wife he likes. Old ways of things .
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