November 5, 2021
The Albanian Institute presents a special screening of Hive, the Sundance triple award-winning film and Kosovo’s official Oscar® submission.
Opening theatrically in New York City on Friday, November 5 at Film Forum, the film will be accompanied by an in-person Q&A with acclaimed filmmaker Blerta Basholli and lead actress Yllka Gashi, co-presented by the Albanian Institute New York.
HIVE (Original title: Zgjoi)
Albanian with English subtitles
Drama | 2021 | 84 min
A co-production of Kosovo, Switzerland, North Macedonia, and Albania
Film Forum
209 West Houston Street, New York City
Albanian Institute members receive up to two $11 discounted tickets to all screenings (regular price $15). Enter promo code AIHIVE online at checkout, or in person at box office.
ZEITGEIST FILMS IN ASSOCIATION WITH KINO LORBER
Blerta Basholli’s multiple award winner HIVE is a searing drama based on the true story of Fahrije, who, like many of the other women in her patriarchal village, has lived with fading hope and burgeoning grief since her husband went missing during the war in Kosovo. In order to provide for her struggling family, she pulls the other widows in her community together to launch a business selling a local food product. Together, they find healing and solace in considering a future without their husbands—but their will to begin living independently is met with hostility. Winner of the Audience Award, Directing Award, and World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, HIVE is a pithy, devastating portrait of loss and our uphill journeys to freedom.
YLLKA GASHI
“Yllka Gashi is powerfully, effectively steely as a woman who must take matters into her own hands, even when they are tied by society. Plenty of evocative moments. Gashi turns in an unglamorous performance as a broken-down woman who remains resilient. A shimmery dream sequence… opens up the movie to a brief glimpse of the sublime.” — Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire
“There are moments, particularly in Gashi’s tenacious performance, that connect to a rawer emotional power. Prompts us to realize that part of the tragedy of a generation’s menfolk being decimated by war is that society at large loses the progress and enlightenment that the best of them would have promoted.” – Jessica Kiang, Variety
Hive was inspired by the true story of Fahrije Hoti.
Hoti — a handsome and composed woman with neatly cropped grey hair — as The Guardian put it, after the 1999 War in Kosova, started life from zero in Krushe. With two young children, her husband on the list of missing persons, and with the house completely burnt down, she learned how to drive, started a small local business selling pickles and ajvar in markets, creating new jobs for other women in her village while raising her own two sons.
Fahrije never gave up.
“Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.” — Maya Angelou
