09/08/2022

The first films in the National Competition shown at the 21st edition of DokuFest have revealed the personal stories of the directors. While director Noar Sahiti with the film "Coagulation" has brought a short autobiography, filmmaker Eneos Çarka with his film "Pigeon Song" has presented his quest on the love story between his great-grandparents.
The film "Coagulation", set at the beginning of this century, shows a 9-year-old boy and his mother travel to the capital to undergo a medical intervention. This DNA test is performed to determine the disputed paternity of the boy.
"It is an autobiographical film. 95% of it is a recreation of scenes or moments that happened in 2000. Normally, it was made to adapt to the format of the short film. Otherwise, when the film is screened in Kosovo, is a slightly different feeling, than when it is screened in other environments, since the context and definition of the traditional family is understood differently, thus the consequences or any family structure that deviates from the traditional one, can be more understandable", said Sahiti, after the film screening.
He expressed his belief that the society in Kosovo should be more liberal regarding the definition of a healthy family.
"I was raised by two women, by my mother and my grandmother, and all my childhood memories are magical, so the absence of what is considered the pillar of the family in Kosovo or the absence of a male parent has been beneficial for me. It definitely needs to be talked about, any type of family should be normalized", said the Kosovar director.
On the other side, the filmmaker Eneos Çarka, who is woken up every morning by the voice of a pigeon, reads his great-grandfather's prison journal. He learns that a pigeon also accompanied him while he was writing. This lonely, eternal pigeon fills the gaps of what has been forgotten, reactivating the untold family wounds. Therefore, with the metaphysical power of the pigeon, he begins his quest on the history of his great-grandfather and great-grandmother. "The pigeon exists in my great-grandmother's photograph. I got a metaphysical power from him".  
He claims that this quest has been important for him, in the absence of basic information.
"It's all based on stories handed down orally, what my grandmother told me, what my parents told me, and they were stories that didn't match. And I didn't know whom to trust more. So in the end I decided to trust my way of seeing this relationship, how I see history, memory and oblivion".
The hint for quest came from the absence of Luiza, his great-grandmother, in the writings of his great-grandfather, who was a writer. "When I see that the writer writes about many things but does not mention his only love, who he loved so much, it means that it was such a pain for him. Maybe this was his way of dealing with this pain. It felt strange, how could you not write a single word about her, and I wanted to find out more, I wanted to get into his mind."
The National Competition film program continues with several screenings on the upcoming days of the festival.

Photo Credits: Kushtrim Haxha