Blerta Zeqiri
Directing
Biography
Blerta Zeqiri (born 1979) is a film director from Kosovo. Her work primarily focuses on missing people and LGBT rights issues. Zeqiri was born in 1979 in Kosovo and grew up in Suva Reka. As a teen, she was a hip-hop artist in Kosovo. In 1999, her and her family escaped a massacre in their hometown during the Kosovo War; Zeqiri subsequently immigrated that year to France, as a refugee of the war. In 2004, Zeqiri co-directed the short film "Exit". She directed the short movie "The Return" ("Kthimi"), which was shot in three days and was about a couple that reunites after the Kosovo War. The film won the Jury Prize in Short Film, International Fiction at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012. Her debut feature-length film, The Marriage ("Martesa"), was released in 2018 and focused on LGBT rights. The Marriage was directed by Zeqiri and co-written by her and Kreshnik Berisha, her partner. In 2018, Kosovo selected the film as their country's submission for the Oscars' best foreign-language film category. In 2019, she was awarded a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters from France.
Known For
Bekim and Anita are getting married, but Anita is unaware that Bekim is still in love with his best friend Nol. The Marriage charts the emotional predicament of the man who has strong feelings for two persons. There is great pressure to marry and only mild support for LGBTQ rights in Kosovan society, so Zeqiri’s film, which unashamedly puts same-sex and heterosexual passion on the same plane, is a forceful step in the right direction, as well as a dynamic portrait of romance and deception in the shadow of war.
The Marriage
A man comes back from a Serb prison to his wife and son. A lot has changed since he was declared missing. Continuing where they left off four years ago may not be as easy as it seems.