Miami International Film Festival 2010

East Coast Premiere.

After four decades of filmmaking, Serbian Goran Paskaljevic is considered one of Eastern Europe’s leading directors. Here, in the first Serbian-Albanian film co-production in history, he recounts a parallel tale of two young couples, newlyweds from these two quarreling regions who watch their dreams disintegrate into nightmares when they leave their homelands in search of a better life in “the promised land” of Western Europe. Despite undiminished tensions over breakaway Kosovo, this important film beautifully reconciles these two nations by pointing out their similarities rather than their differences. Though Paskaljevic insists he wasn't trying to make any political point, even before filming started Serbian nationalists accused him of being a traitor, while Albanians in Tirana didn't exactly warm to the idea either. When a simple love story like this has such tremendous repercussions, imagine what would happen if this film’s focus really was politics. But then again, isn’t it?!