Sworn Virgin

Italy/Switzerland/Germany/Albania/Republic Kosovo, 2015
Length
90 minutes
Director
Laura Bispuri
Cast
  • Alba Rohrwacher
  • Flonja Kodheli
  • Lars Eidinger

Content

Hana is growing up in an archaic alpine landscape in Albania where the old codes and traditional
gender roles prevail. She escapes the fate of a wife and servant when, in accordance with the Kanun,
the traditional Albanian law, she pledges herself to life-long virginity, thus sacrificing her femininity
for perceived freedom. From now on, she is treated like a man. She is given a dagger and the name
of Mark. But after ten years of seclusion, she decides to change her life and takes the train to Milan,
where her sister lives with her family. She is not exactly expecting Hana ...In her debut feature film,
Laura Bispuri accompanies a young woman on a difficult and painful odyssey, away from the oldfashioned world of the mountains and into the modern life of the city. The film relays the story of a
woman who rediscovers her sexuality and draws on allegoric images to allude to the ambivalences in
Hana's emotional life. This empathic study makes do with little dialogue, instead relying on glances,
gestures and a protagonist who faces up to her own inconsistencies.

Gallery

Credits

Production company
Vivo Film srl
Original title
Vergine giurata