2021 ‘Në kërkim të Venerës’ Directed by Norika Sefa
Living in a crowded, multi-generational household in a small village in Kosovo, the quiet teenager Venera can rarely find privacy. However, when she befriends the rebellious Dorina, a new, liberating world opens up to her. Slowly, Venera begins to push against her conservative family’s expectations.
Alla ricerca di Venera
Netherlands
International Film Festival Rotterdam
Russian Federation
Mirror Andrey Tarkovsky International Film Festival
Italy
Italy
Netherlands
Russian Federation
Film #1 of 30
Kosovo
It has taken me a few days, well 5, to actually get going with March Around the World 2022. Oddly the start of March has coincided with probably the longest absence of movies form my Letterboxd diary so far this year. I’m not sure whether it’s a good or bad thing that I’d consider 5 days without any movies to be a failure of some sort but hey, what ya gonna do? All of us here live and breathe film, right?
Simply because it looked like it was going to fall off the wrong end of the Mubi “Now Playing” section, I started this year’s challenge in Kosovo. The movie;…
A sensational and sensual feature debut which deserves nothing less than to find its way onto the big screen all around the globe.
"This year’s online edition of Rotterdam’s IFFR offered a wide collection of visually and thematically diverse films, the majority of which focused on marginalised stories of queer identities, otherwise overlooked women’s narratives and societies affected by dark histories of colonialism and fascist governments. One of such surprises among 16 titles presented in the Tiger Competition proved to be a delicate coming-of-age drama set in a small Kosovar town, where any manifestation of female individuality still ends in immediate suppression by the governing patriarchal mentality. After Aga’s House (Lendita Zeqiraj, 2019), Zana (Antoneta Kastrati, 2019) and the most recent Sundance hit Hive (Blerta Basholli, 2021), Kosovar cinema seems to be catching an unexpected wave – one that, despite having roots in…
The bratty, rebellious tone fits the coming-of-age genre very well, but the film is overall too languid and meandering to hold the attention. The story has been told umpteen times before and Looking For Venera brings little fresh material to the fore. It's your average timid and repressed girl in a conservative household finding self-expression and freedom through a blossoming relationship with a defiant new friend. The brutish Kosovan landscape adds thematic visuals, but that's about it.
IFFR 2021
The awakening of female individuality, agency, and sexual liberation in rural Kosovo. Lovely and groundbreaking.
Venera (Kosovare Kransniqi) is a courteous and influential but confidently independent teenage girl living in a small kosovan town. Just like many of the other teenagers in her area there is a deep disconnect with her parents whose imposed views on Venera failed to know her more intimately on who she is or what she wants. Showing the worn out and subservient women who have no connection with their families other than domestic responsibilities foreshadowing a dismal future for Vernera and her peers. A community fortified with tradition and patriarchal and social influence and damaged by war, In a town that offers minimal outlets for younger generations. Venera and her peers are left with little to heighten their curiosity and nothing to absorb their youthful vitality. An introspective vision of social realism and alienation that sets an individualistic teenage girl against the throes of soul crushing social expectations and claustrophobic tribalism.
Very familiar material is given a slightly different flavour from writer-director Norika Sefa. Kosovare Krasniqi is very good in the titular role, but the familiarity still works against it slightly, holding it back from becoming a great film.
Well this was surprisingly wonderful. A psychologically astute portrait of a teenage girl‘s coming of age in rural, rather conservative Kosovo. To its great credit, it never resorts to miserabilist melodramatics, cheap Eastern Europe cliches and it never gives any of its characters a reductive short shrift. Fantastic cast with special shout outs to Krasniqi in the lead role and Kakeli as her best friend.
Winner of Rotterdam’s Special Jury Award, Norika Sefa’s richly observed debut is a formally unorthodox take on the coming-of-age genre. Amid the brutish landscape of a remote Kosovan village, a teenage girl sows the seeds of defiance that dare to blossom against a stiflingly patriarchal community.
Now showing here.
i found it refreshing to see a coming of age story set in rural kosovo. a very different way of life than i’m used to yet there were so many fleeting moments that i found relatable & i found myself really rooting for the characters & interested in their lives even when at times the film showed the mundane & dull nature of their everyday reality
