Laura Bispuri’s first feature film, Sworn Virgin, starring Alba Rohrwacher, represents Italy at the Berlin Film Festival, and teaches me about something I’ve never heard of.
Director Laura Bispuri, and Venice Film Festival Best Actress winner Alba Rorhwacher are going to the next Berlin Film Festival (5-15 February) with Bispuri’s first feature film Sworn Virgin, the story of a young woman in Albania who makes the choice to live like a man, a cultural phenomenon that is apparently dying out, but new to me.
Because women in patriarchal northern Albanian society are not allowed to hold many jobs, vote, inherit wealth, or buy or own property, women can, for a variety of reasons, take an oath of chastity and live like a man.
Burrnesha or virgjinesha wear male clothing and in many cases become heads of households to save a family from poverty.
“I’m really happy to be going to Berlin with my first feature film”, stated the director. “I struggled for a long time to make this movie, urged on by my great love for the character of Hana/Mark and by a feeling of responsibility towards the story that I chose to tell, a story that’s a metaphor for the link between women’s freedom and the world”.
I Love Italian Everything 