Antoneta Kastrati: “‘Zana’ is also a film about the future”

Lume, an Albanian woman living in a small Kosovar village, is trying to come to terms with the loss of her little daughter who perished during the Kosovo war, while under pressure to bear a new one, in Antoneta Kastrati’s powerful debut feature film Zana.

In conversation with the director, ahead of the screening of the film within the context of the online edition of the 26^th Sarajevo Film Festival.

Since Zana is dedicated to both your mother and your sister who perished during the Kosovo war in 1999, is this film a tribute to them or does it also allude to something more universal?

I think it’s both.

For sure it’s about their memory, but it’s also about the future. This is the first bilingual project I’ve done, and has always been in the back of my mind.

It has to do with what it actually means to lose someone during the war and how it fundamentally changes our way of seeing life, how it becomes something more than just grieving.

That’s why I decided to tell the story of mothers, I’m a mother myself.

Were you already a mother once the film was initially conceived?

I was pregnant and then became a mother.

I knew what it means to lose a family member, and also the feeling of bringing a human being into the world. I could not fully understand what it means to lose a child, but I could feel it in my bones.

My sister was killed in front of my mother, she saw her death. She lived thirty minutes after that.

When you lose someone, your child, with whom you were inter-connected, you’re not living in the same universe anymore.

Time doesn’t flow the same way, because the dead are part of your life and you are part of theirs. They’re not gone. There’s a feeling of timelessness, and I tried to bring that up through the character of Lume.

Lume (Adriana Matoshi) surely doesn’t fully inhabit just one world. She seems to be in between worlds, between the one of her traumatic experiences/memories and that of the present. Had she also endured similar war-time experiences?

She hasn’t lost someone personally, but she deeply understood the script and felt it. Then, of course, I had to guide her, but she had already captured the essence of her character. As an actress, she has that kind of power.

Has it all been clearly scripted from the beginning, or has there also been some room for improvisation along the way?

Things change. We had to shorten some scenes, for example, because we didn’t have enough money, but everything was pretty much scripted, because I had been working on it for a very long time.

Moreover, if an actor/actress has suggestions, I’m open to change. Generally, though, 90% was scripted.

The paranormal/supernatural element is quite dominant in your film. Does it have some cultural relevance to rural Kosovo, where Zana is set, or does it have more to do with the subject-matter and Lume’s mentality?

It’s both.

In rural Kosovo, when you want to get pregnant, you go to a healer. It’s out of desperation, when there’s no choice.

There’s also of sexism and gender pressure. All the oppression later on builds up and women don’t know how to deal with it.

To me it was interesting to deal with dreams. As far the main character is concerned, I thought that this dreaming process could give her a way out, to convince her that what happens is caused by someone else and that she’s no different from the rest.

Did you grow up in a similar location to the Peja district, where the film was shot? You seem to be very familiar with the cultural context of such a place.

I grew up in a village, was the second youngest of six sisters, went to school and then my younger sister also went to school, but none of the other sisters did that.

I don’t know if there’s anything on the film that is not taken from something that’s real. I was also interested in the rituals between women, and some rituals are dying.

Did you want to preserve them on screen, in a fictional manner?

It’s not just about preservation, but about what they represent, their meaning.

The snow dominating the final scenes of Zana is spectacular, both aesthetically and narratively. Did you conceive it as some sort of redemption?

The snow element came to a little bit later during the writing process and it was a 100% clear that it was necessary, as a metaphor and on a symbolic level.

For me, the ending is bittersweet and gives you the possibility to let go of something, but then Lume’s still left with the feeling of her daughter. Some ask me, “Why didn’t you shoot your own story?” This is also my story.

And I did many interviews with women who had been through similar situations, and a great part of them is physically sick and suffers from headaches or epilepsy. Very few of them had kids after the war. “I can’t be a mother to the new kids,” some told me.

Have you managed to deal with or even overcome the loss of your mother and sister or not?

I don’t know, I carry it. What you see in the film is a diluted version of what I have personally experienced, which was actually a lot worse.

Of course we live -it’s not about that-, but it can happen any time.

Doesn’t it feel odd that, due of the pandemic, the screening of your film during the 26^th Sarajevo Film Festival will take place online and you will therefore have no chance to interact with the audience?

I was so happy to be invited by the Festival, because I’ve attended it a couple of times and really loved and respected it a lot. It’s one of the best festivals. So, I’m a little bit sad that I won’t have this chance.

The world -and the world of cinema, too- is not going to be the same, even when the pandemic eventually subsides. How does this situation affect you, both on a human and an artistic level?

There’s also a disappointment as far as I’m concerned, because there was going to be a limited theatrical release of the film in the USA, but what can you do? You have to adapt, so I’ve been trying to remain positive. There’s no other choice.

And the future is unknown.

More info about Antoneta Kastrati and Zana may be found in the film’s official website.

Zana will be screened within the context of the In Focus section of the online edition of the 26^th Sarajevo Film Festival (14-21 August 2020).