Shame and Money

Shaban (Astrit Kabashi, Hive, SFF 2021, Zana, SFF 2020) and his wife Hatixhe (Flonja Kodheli, Sworn Virgin, SFF 2015) are proud heads of a dairy farming family living in rural Kosovo. When the selfish act of a cash-strapped relative suddenly leaves them with no cows, and no way to make a living, they are forced to relocate with their three daughters to Pristina, the capital, in desperate search of work. They bunk temporarily in the flashy home of Hatixhe's sister and her well-off husband Alban, who offers Shaban and Hatixhe menial part-time labour as nightclub cleaners. This familial assistance comes, of course, with strings attached, and offers the family considerably more shame than it does salvation. With great precision and humanity, Morina (Exile, Father) follows the testing daily grind of a family trying to hold itself together under dire economic and personal circumstances. A searing, brilliantly performed drama, Shame and Money is a compassionate portrayal of the struggle to retain dignity and self-respect in conditions of dehumanising economic precarity that are far from unique to Kosovo, and could easily be replicated anywhere.