Short Film Forum

Betwixt

Hybrid Documentary / Kosova
Director: Dita Xhaferi
Producer: Lendina Balaj
Production Company: Prenda Production L.L.C

Synopsis: Caught between home and abroad, a young woman moves through the invisible pressures of family, migration, and cultural expectation. In one place, she is reminded of who she was raised to be; in the other, she is constantly asked to explain who she has become. Neither world offers complete belonging.

Through fragmented memories, intimate family moments, institutional spaces, and the repetitive movement of travel, the film explores the emotional weight of living between identities. Home is both a source of love and a place of restriction, while life abroad promises freedom but often brings isolation, bureaucracy, and the feeling of being permanently temporary.

As expectations gather around her body, choices, and future, she struggles to protect a sense of self that is increasingly divided. The violence she experiences is rarely visible or dramatic. It exists in silence, obligation, judgment, and the gradual loss of certainty about where she belongs.

Her journey is not simply about choosing between two countries. It is an attempt to reclaim dignity and define herself beyond the roles imposed upon her. In the unstable space between departure and return, tradition and independence, she searches for a way to belong without disappearing or betraying parts of herself.