Short Film Forum

For Whom Do the Bells Toll

During the unrest of the 1990s in Kosovo and throughout the war, the Catholic church of Gllogjan became a refuge for thousands from the Dukagjin region. Through the memories of the priest and sisters who served there, the film recalls when Don Kelmend Spaqi rang the church bells to mark iftar for Muslim refugees sheltered inside.

People of different faiths and backgrounds were brought together under one roof, where the church shifted from a place of worship to a space of survival. Many slept on the floor, while the Sisters cooked, tended to the sick, and cared for the wounded.
For Whom the Bells Toll? is a visual memoir of Kosovo’s collective memory.