2022
Public presentation of the audio tracks produced by students of Electronic Audio Production (EAP) Vol. 2 module of Neo_School by Kino ARMATA
We are proud to present 11 audio tracks produced by students of Electronic Audio Production (EAP) Vol. 2, module for electronic production of music and sound, part of Neo_School non-formal education platform by Kino ARMATA.
STUDENTS
Fisnik Bekolli
Milot Hajredini
Valmir Mustafa
Viola Recaj
Andi Thaqi
LECTURERS
Bujar Aruqaj
Ilir Bajri
Liburn Jupolli
Tomor Kuçi
Dritëro Nikqi
Vigan Nimani
Driton Pllana – Toton
Alia Schafer
Between 18 October – 12 November 2021, selected candidates had the opportunity to attend lectures on various aspects of music production, including field recording, sound effects, acoustics, synthesis, arrangement, software editing, mixing, etc. from the leaders in music theory and practice. After intensive theory sessions and developing the ideas for their projects, each participant produced an audio track that appears on a compilation released at the end of the project. They were challenged individually and as a group to operate synthesizers, produce sounds, work on Ableton and other software, mix, and deal with other aspects of this process.
The education platform at Kino ARMATA is a logical continuation of our three-years of building a creative base for artists, producers, cultural workers, etc. Besides a considerable number of synthesizers that are an integral part of Kino ARMATA’s music arsenal, with the help of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) we are now equipped with production units that allowed all Neo_School participants to produce for FREE their tracks without any additional technical requirement. Lecturers and mentors at Neo_School are leaders in their areas of expertise, ensuring that students received relevant guidance for developing their ideas and transferring those into the music medium.
Neo_School is supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and Municipality of Prishtina.
It's a Wonderful Life (1946) / Country: United States / Director: Frank Capra / Length: 135 min / Language: English / Subtitles: Albanian / Entrance: FREE
It's a Wonderful Life is a 1946 American Christmas fantasy comedy-drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra, based on the short story and booklet The Greatest Gift by Philip Van Doren Stern.
The film stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man who has given up his dreams in order to help others, and whose imminent suicide on Christmas Eve brings about the intervention of his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers). Clarence shows George all the lives he has touched, and how different life in his community of Bedford Falls would be if he had never been born.
It's a Wonderful Life was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and has been placed by the American Film Institute as number one on its list of the most inspirational American films of all time. Capra revealed that this was his personal favorite among the films he directed, and that he screened it for his family every Christmas season.
Kino ARMATA is proud to screen six films produced during Neo_School Doc Vol. 3, a one-month informal school module for the production of short documentary films. Between 17 October - 25 November 2022, under the mentorship of director Ilir Hasanaj selected candidates had the opportunity to attend lectures on various aspects of documentary filmmaking, including production, research, screenplay development, directing, editing, audio, etc., from the leaders in film and research. After intensive theory sessions and developing the ideas for their films, each student produced a short documentary film. They were challenged individually and as a group to operate cameras, edit the film, work on post-production and other aspects of filmmaking process.
FILMMAKERS:
Ron Idrizaj
Korab Mala
Ana Morina
Enis Murati
Vesa Shahini
Dita Xhaferi
LECTURERS:
Eranda Bokshi
Dea Gjinovci
Dafina Halili
Ilir Hasanaj
Blerta Haziraj
Valmirë Hyseni
Tomor Kuçi
Vigan Nimani
Enis Saraçi
Dren Suldashi
The education platform is a logical continuation of Kino ARMATA’s two-years building of a creative base for artists, producers, cultural workers, etc. With the help of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Kino ARMATA is now equipped with cameras, audio equipment, editing suites, etc., that allowed all Neo_School participants to produce for FREE their films without any additional technical requirement. Lecturers and mentors at Neo_School are leaders in their areas of expertise, ensuring that students received relevant guidance for developing their ideas and transferring those into the film medium.
Neo_School is supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and Municipality of Prishtina.
Illusions perdues (2021) / Director: Xavier Giannoli / Length: 149 min. / Language: French / Subtitles: English / Entrance: FREE
Lucien de Rubempré is a young idealistic poet born without fortune in Angoulême at the beginning of the 19th century. His relationship with a married woman from the local nobility is the opportunity to go to Paris to satisfy his ambitions. Soon left to his own devices in this hectic and cruel city, he will discover that Parisian literary, intellectual and artistic life is only the facade of a vast cynical economic system, where "everything is bought and sold, literature like the press, politics like feelings, reputations like souls. Thanks to his talents as a critic, he began to rise within Parisian high society. But this system will turn against him.
"Les Infidèles" (2012) / Directors: Emmanuelle Bercot, Fred Cavayé, Alexandre Courtès, Jean Dujardin, Michel Hazanavicius, Jan Kounen, Éric Lartigau, Gilles Lellouche / Length: 109 min. / Language: French / Subtitles: English / Entrance: FREE
Les Infidèles is a French sketch film directed by Emmanuelle Bercot, Fred Cavayé, Alexandre Courtès, Jean Dujardin, Michel Hazanavicius, Éric Lartigau, Gilles Lellouche and Jan Kounen, released in 2012.
Male infidelity and its many variations: Fred and Greg, two friends, spend their evenings touring nightclubs to find their conquest of the night. Bernard finds himself in the hospital in an embarrassing situation. Laurent is stuck in a business seminar for a few days and intends to take advantage of his stay in a hotel far from his wife to cheat on her.
King of the Belgians (2016) / Directors: Peter Brosens, Jessica Woodworth / Length: 94 min. / Language: French, Dutch and English / Subtitles: English, French and Bosnian / Entrance: FREE
At the occasion of the Belgian King’s Day and the Francophone Film Festival, the Diplomatic Office of Belgium in Pristina is glad to cooperate with Kino ARMATA for the screening of ‘King of the Belgians’.
King Nicolas III is a lonely soul who has the distinct feeling he’s living the wrong life. He embarks on a state visit to Istanbul with a British filmmaker, Duncan Lloyd, who has been commissioned by the Palace to shoot a documentary intended to polish the monarch’s rather dull image. The news breaks that Wallonia, Belgium’s southern half, has declared its independence. The King, bursting with purpose, must return home at once to save his kingdom. And for once, he declares, he will write his own damn speech. As they rally to depart, a solar storm strikes the earth causing communications to collapse and airspace to shut down. No phones. No planes. To make matters worse, Turkish security coldly dismisses the King’s suggestion they return home by road. But the King has no intention of waiting out this storm. Lloyd, sniffing an opportunity of historical proportions, hatches a dubious escape plan that involves flowery dresses and singing Bulgarians.
Thus begins their undercover odyssey across the Balkans, a journey that’s loaded with wrong turns, startling encounters and moments of fleeting joy.
Language: French, Dutch and English. Subtitles in English, French and Bosnian.
At the end of screening, a drink (Belgian-Style beers!) will be offered to the guests.
"Petite Leçon d'amour" (2021) / Director: Ève Deboise / Length: 86 min. / Language: French / Subtitles: English / Entrance: FREE
The Swiss Embassy in Prishtina is pleased to invite you to the movie "Petite Leçon D'Amour” (2021) on Thursday 17 November at 7PM at Kino ARMATA on the occasion of the Film Festival de la Francophonie.
Julie is a young woman who walks dogs in Paris in her spare time. While walking, she takes shelter in a cafe to escape a rainstorm. In the cafe, she finds a forgotten folder with a math test and a disturbing love letter written by a high school girl to her teacher. Julie frantically embarks on an investigation. She has little time to prevent the worst, because the teenager seems prepared for anything.
The movie will be in French, with English subtitles.
To get the first taste of Swiss francophone culture, the Swiss Embassy invites you to a delicious apéro before the film screening, starting at 18:00 in the Armata cinema.
In this spirit: A bientôt !
"France" (2021) / Director: Bruno Dumont / Length: 133 min. / Language: French / Subtitles: English / Entrance: FREE
France is a 2021 comedy-drama film written and directed by Bruno Dumont. It stars Léa Seydoux, Blanche Gardin, Benjamin Biolay, Emanuele Arioli, Juliane Köhler, Gaëtan Amiel, Jewad Zemmar and Marc Bettinelli.
The film follows the life of a star television journalist caught in a spiral of events that will lead to her downfall. Between drama and comedy, France seeks to compare the intimate and public crisis of a young woman with a portrait of contemporary France.[2] The film had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on 15 July 2021. It was released in France on 25 August 2021 by ARP Selection.
The film is intended in particular to be a satire of the treatment of information by television channels. France de Meurs is a star journalist at a private French television station. Her fame, her way of conceiving reports and programmes, as well as a chain of personal events, will cause a total questioning of her career in media and turn her life upside down, in addition to her struggles with panic attacks and anxiety.
Field of Blackbirds (2018) / Director: Arzana Kraja / Length: 90 min. / Language: Albanian / Subtitles: English / Entrance: FREE
To mark the anniversary of the untimely loss of director Arzana Kraja as well as the European Arthouse Cinema Day 2022, on the day that opens The Month of European Film at Kino ARMATA between 13 November - 10 December as part of the project initiated in cooperation with the European Film Academy, we screen Field of Blackbirds (2018), written and directed by Arzana Kraja.
Syla, a tortured former political prisoner from Kosovo, realizes that his political idealism destroyed his life. After twenty years of mundane life in London, he returns home to confront his troubled past.
The screening is organized in partnership with Kosovo Cinematography Center (QKK) and Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports (MKRS).
(Balkan) NIGHTMARE
by Luan Durmishi
This project comes after three years of intensive work, spanning time between 1132 (referring to Albanian Byzantine music) up to variations as well as time and culture levels characteristic for modern day music. With a professional visual support, this project transmits collective social and cultural engagement that is NIGHTMARE's unique goal.
"The Black King appears dressed under the veil of the mundane costume that swirls, groans, disfigures and decodes, within his majesty, and against his own."
(NIGHTMARE)
MUSIC:
text, Albanian Byzantine vocals & main vocals - Luan Durmishi
music producer / recording, mixing, mastering - Tomor Kuçi
composer of main vocal line of the piece & basic rhythm - Irena Popović
oboe & drums - Albin Abazi
guitar, recording & production assistance - Dren Suldashi
VIDEO:
concept - Luan Durmishi, Ilir Hasanaj
screenplay, directing, editing - Ilir Hasanaj
cinematography - Samir Karahoda
editing - Ardmax
storyboard - Arvan Berisha
camera assistance - Jetmir Zenelaj, Ardmax
costumes - Flutura Dedinja
the set, sculptures - Rigon Begolli
make-up - Violeta Janjeva
equipment - Ikonë Studio
black king, black spirit - Luan Durmishi
traveller / queen - Kanina Arifi
traveller - Apollon Arifi
black dancer - Agnes Nokshiqi
black dancer - Don Shala
PMC II / 4-5 November 2022
We are set on a mission. To develop fresh perspectives on the diversity of the thought process concerning the development of music.
To expand the collective mind on the urban music market in Kosovo, the region and the world. To come to respect sound, and treat it how it deserves.
For this to bear fruit, and as we build the pillars for a bright future with PMC, we would like to remind our audience of a very important building block to our undertaking, out of which we expect this dire change.
Consistency. Consistent in approach. Consistent in delivery. Consistent in demeanor. With the experience of a successful first edition under our belt, combined with some key improvements stemmed from the feedback received from our guests, speakers and panelists, we are pleased and very excited to inform you that PMC will be back for its second edition in November of 2022.
The conference will have the same format as last year, with presentations, panel discussions, exhibitions, workshops, and performances.
Mafia and Red Tomatoes (2014) / Director: Giulio Manfredonia / Length: 100 min. / Language: Italian / Subtitles: English / Entrance: FREE
Kino ARMATA, a public space in Prishtina that promotes alternative culture and social dialogue, has the pleasure of announcing partnership with the Italian Embassy in Kosovo in bringing to Prishtina and Kosovo audiences some of the most important and relevant works of Italian auteurs.
As part of the Week of Italian Language in the World, Kino ARMATA will screen "Mafia and Red Tomatoes" (2014), directed by Giulio Manfredonia. The film will be screened in Italian language with English subtitles and the entrance is free of charge.
Filippo has been dealing with anti-Mafia activities in the south of Italy for years, but has done so from his office chair far removed in the north. When a cooperative from Apulia is given a small farm that was confiscated from ruthless Mafia boss Sansone, they can’t manage to get going on account of ongoing mafia boycotts, and Filippo is reluctantly forced to get actively involved on the ground. Fearful, anxious and hopelessly bureaucratic, he won’t have an easy time. But he is inspired thanks to the courage and passion of the mismatched members of this cooperative.
Music Klip Vol. 10
Kino ARMATA continues with a series of events that showcases music videos by various local and international artists, as part of a visual or thematic context. The events are monthly; the May episode is curated by Orbis Rexha, lawyer and activist You will listen and see music clips from home videos and mainly Albanian music, from artists like Qamili i Vogël, Ismet Peja, etc.
Performance “I am Breaking My Heart” by Leart Rama is part of SEKHMET’s artistic intervention LOVE is LOVE is LOVE for Manifesta 14 Prishtina – a choral, multimedia reflection on what brings people together, and the true meaning of equality and love.
I AM BREAKING MY HEART
I live, I breathe
I destroy myself and you…
The abyss that will never let me see the above.
The Sun rises and sets… forever, maybe
but I never see the light.
Inside circles of my doppelgangers
I try to point fingers,
to let the guilt out.
The fingers come back to me…
“I am Breaking My Heart” is an audiovisual performance by Leart Rama, violently exploring grief, hysteria and numbness. It is a deep dive into the weight of shame and self-destruction, and the silent whispers that say: “Whatever you are, it’s your fault.”
“I am Breaking My Heart” was originally created during Rama’s artist-in-residency Q21 Wien and performed in 2019, with support from CEL Kosovo and Youth artivists for change.
Poster by: Gëzim Ramizi (Xaxi)
Sunday, 9 October / 21:00
Performance by Lukas Rehm (Lybes Dimem) on the occasion of the launch of 333 (published by Building Fictions, designed by Tatjana Stürmer and Rudy Guedj)
REDO is a three-day event in motion that brings together designers from around the world to create a discourse around the current issues within the practice of graphic design. Through a series of talks, music events, books, and tours of the city, REDO provides an opportunity for designers to get together in and around the city of Prishtina.
Sunday, 9 October / 17:00–19:00
Elisa van Joolen (NL/IT)
Atelier Brenda (BE)
REDO is a three-day event in motion that brings together designers from around the world to create a discourse around the current issues within the practice of graphic design. Through a series of talks, music events, books, and tours of the city, REDO provides an opportunity for designers to get together in and around the city of Prishtina.
Saturday, 8 October / 17:00–19:00
Jonathan Castro Alejos (PE)
Laurenz Brunner (CH)
REDO is a three-day event in motion that brings together designers from around the world to create a discourse around the current issues within the practice of graphic design. Through a series of talks, music events, books, and tours of the city, REDO provides an opportunity for designers to get together in and around the city of Prishtina.
Friday, 7 October / 20:00–22:00
Shirana Shahbazi (CH/DE/IRN) & Manuel Krebs (CH)
Estonian Academy of Arts (EE) & Åbäke (UK)
SHOWCASE
Anna Thew (UK)
Institutional and Artistic Responsibilities of Experimental Filmmaking
4 October, 18:00 – 22:00
Films by Thew and workshop on the history of experimental filmmaking
5 October, 18:00 – 22:00
Films by Thew and talk on the tradition of the London Filmmakers Co-Op and the international experimental film network
6 October, 18:00 – 22:00
Films by guest filmmakers and lecture/debate/performance about new perspectives in the genre
Anna Thew's showcase is a part of Kino ARMATA’s Four Ways from Sundown programme, curated by Sezgin Boynik, Alush Gashi and Vigan Nimani for Manifesta 14 Prishtina, also featuring Felix Kubin, Jean-François Pauvros & Jean-Marc Montera and Sylvain George. Four Ways from Sundown is supported by Foundation Manifesta 13 Marseille.
ABOUT ANNA THEW
Born in Sheffield in 1947. Studied F.A. Painting at Chelsea School of Art, London and Italian & German at Manchester University and Perugia University, Italy. Began making films in 1980, working in both single screen and expanded multi-screen formats, installation and performance, with production awards from the Arts Council, the British Film Institute and Channel 4, and sponsorship from Kodak.
Anna Thew's work has shown widely in international film festivals, including Berlin, Edinburgh, London, New York, Sydney, Locarno and Montreal; in galleries including the Serpentine and Tate Gallery, London and Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, and in touring programmes in the UK, France, Germany, Australia, the Netherlands, Brazil and USA. Retrospective and one person shows of single and multi-screen works include BROKEN PIECES, Zagreb and Dubrovnik, 2002, ANNA THEW MULTI-PROJECTIONS, Villa Capriglio, Turin 2000, the LUX, London, 1999, the International Festival of New Film and Video, Split, Croatia 1997 and Akademie der Künste, Düsseldorf 1995.
She has independently curated programmes of artists' film and video in the U.K. and abroad, including 291 Gallery, London, 2001, the LUX Cinema 1999, Riverside Studios (Free Radicals) 1998, FLUX at the Milch Gallery, 1996, FLUX at the Minema, London 1994 and German tour of New British Film & Video sponsored by the British Council Leipzig. Teaching includes Goldsmiths, Central Saint Martins. Currently programming the Art in Cinema series at Chelsea College of Art.
Thew’s films and her performances combine queer subjectivities with structural-formalist investigations, and musical scores with social activism. During her showcase at Kino ARMATA, Thew will talk about the organizational and distributional aspects of experimental filmmaking, including gender and class aspects of these practices, as well as screen her and other filmmakers films associated with LFMC, yet focusing on women and queer filmmakers.
SYLVAIN GEORGE SHOWCASE
NO BORDER (Aspettavo Che Scendesse La Sera), Super 8. Black and white. 23 min. NOIR PRODUCTION 2005-2008
Paris, Open City. Dizziness commemorations. Ruins. Winds. Tides. Young migrants Iraqis, Afghans, Iranians roam the streets between soup kitchens and camps. Consequently, they put in crisis the order of things and bourgeois society. An emancipation occurs, deeply melancholy, elegiac: redefining the concept of revolution by a new concept of history.
LES ECLATS (2011), 84 min.
THE OUTBURSTS (My face, my revolt, my name)
BEST INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY, TORINO FILM FESTIVAL 2011
Fragments of voices, laughter and rage; snatches of words, images and memory; the words near and far, from yesterday, from today; the breathe of the wind, the gesture of the sun at the sunset, the reflections red-blood; the raids of the police, processions warriors, court of injustice.
For a map of the violence inflicted on migrants, the repetition of the colonialism, and the unacceptability of the "world as it is."
FOUR WAYS FROM SUNDOWN
Sylvain George's showcase is a part of Kino ARMATA’s Four Ways from Sundown programme, curated by Sezgin Boynik, Alush Gashi and Vigan Nimani for Manifesta 14 Prishtina, also featuring Felix Kubin, Jean-François Pauvros & Jean-Marc Montera and Anna Thew. Four Ways from Sundown is supported by Foundation Manifesta 13 Marseille.
SYLVAIN GEORGE SHOWCASE
NUIT OBSCURE (2022)
Nuit obscure – Feuillets sauvages (Les brûlants, les obstinés), 265 min, Locarno Film Festival 2022
Melilla, a Spanish enclave in Morocco, is a land border between the African continent and Europe. A buffer zone where European migration policies, their challenges and their consequences can be read and seen. A place towards which converge, from Morocco, “those who burn”, the “harragas”, minors and young adults, eager to reach Europe. They have nothing to lose but wanting to live to the end.
FOUR WAYS FROM SUNDOWN
Sylvain George's showcase is a part of Kino ARMATA’s Four Ways from Sundown programme, curated by Sezgin Boynik, Alush Gashi and Vigan Nimani for Manifesta 14 Prishtina, also featuring Felix Kubin, Jean-François Pauvros & Jean-Marc Montera and Anna Thew. Four Ways from Sundown is supported by Foundation Manifesta 13 Marseille.
SYLVAIN GEORGE SHOWCASE
JOLI MAI (2017)
Pretty May (Those who have killed less than a hundred times, throw the first stone at me). Video. Black and white. Noir Production. 8 min.
At the end of the demonstration of 1 May 2016, the police use force.
L’IMPOSSIBLE – PAGES ARRACHEES (2009)
THE IMPOSSIBLE – PEACES OF FURY
(Songs from the protests)
Placed under the auspices of Rimbaud, Lautréamont, Dostoievski and Benjamin, of free jazz and punk, this film endeavors to testify to the iniquitous policies which shape our time, to the "infernal" character of certain political lives or black bodies (that migrants/immigrants, workers, unemployed, students, etc.). It operates, as a minority, a critical stasis of mythical and majority realities; and works on the body the question of revolt and insurrection: overflow, disidentification, undecidable reconfiguration... impossible.
The film is divided into five parts:
1. THE WOOD OF THE SHIPS (I burn properly!)
2009, Super 8, Black and White and Color, 15 min., prod: Noir Production.
Calais, desolate city. Whiteness of the snow that covers the city. Black and tutelary shadows, cross and Belfry, which dominate it. Scarlet fires that envelop and burn her. Figures and faces of people who come back from afar. Migrants. Outcasts. Variation on calcined and infernal landscapes and political lives: the black bodies.
2. BALLAD FOR A CHILD (We won't kill you any more than if you were a corpse)
2009, Super 8, Color, 26 min, prod: Noir Production.
Calais, desolate city. Evocation: In a small wood, the "jungle", a young man who comes from afar, from a Middle East at war, is murdered. It was in December 2008. And it is a whole world, political, which gives up the ghost, to whom we will give up the ghost. Invocation: A young man passes by who comes from afar. And his words, traces and survivals, like a song, come from even further afield: from the chasms, from the sea and the deserts, from oblivion, from the infinite edges. A young man passes by who comes from afar, like a new Orpheus, political, black and rebellious. An impossible young man that nothing and no one can now stop...
3. ARMED AGAINST JUSTICE (Burn! Burn! Burn!)
2009, video, black and white and color, 29 min, prod: Noir Production
Paris. Demonstration of March 19, 2009. Civil servants, students, precarious, undocumented immigrants, unemployed, retired, pound the pavement. Until this one burns, between rage and anger; and that voices are delivered by inscribing themselves in time. Until the State represses, violently and arbitrarily; and that innocent bodies be condemned.
4. THE TIME OF THE ASSASSINS (Fire Music)
2009, video, black and white and color, 17 min, prod: Noir Production
Paris. Demonstration of May 1, 2009. Pursuit, repetition of the insurrectionary gesture: "Peace in the cottages, War in the castles". After a few centuries, the Hôtel de Ville in Paris was again occupied, and the Council of Paris reinvested by a revolutionary assembly. Invocation: the Commune of Paris. Evocation: the people who come. Here is the time, come again...
5. YOU WILL REMAIN HYENA ETC. (The book of the damned)
2009, 16mm, Black and White and Color, 17mn, prod: Noir Production.
With the participation of Lionel Soukaz and Tripak. Like an infernal circle.
Variation on treachery and denial, the spitting of the renegade as a medal, "pension funds" as becoming, from the book "Letters to those who passed from the Mao collar to Rotary" by Guy Hocquenghem, and films by Lionel Soukaz and/or with Guy Hocquenghem.
FOUR WAYS FROM SUNDOWN
Sylvain George's showcase is a part of Kino ARMATA’s Four Ways from Sundown programme, curated by Sezgin Boynik, Alush Gashi and Vigan Nimani for Manifesta 14 Prishtina, also featuring Felix Kubin, Jean-François Pauvros & Jean-Marc Montera and Anna Thew. Four Ways from Sundown is supported by Foundation Manifesta 13 Marseille.
First of all, what will happen? (2022) / Director: Florian Mehmeti Löffler / Length: 31 min. / Language: NONE / Subtitles: NONE / Entrance: FREE
“First of all, what will happen?“ (2022), shot at Grand-Hotel-Prishtina, follows a non-linear plot questioning the relationship between concrete matter of monuments and that of quantum physics.
Opposing the ideology presented in a monument, that of the ever lasting nationstate, Quantum physics defy commonsense notion of matter. In the tiniest scale, all matter behaves like waves and isn’t ever solid. First by affecting its viewer, it fixes its position as stable matter.
“First of all, what will happen?“ is an experimental film where each scene diffracts various temporalities within and across the field of space-time-matter. Sceneries never rest but are reconfigured within, dispersed across, and threaded through one another.
A kid drives an electric vehicle through the corridors of Grand until entering the famous Room 446, in that Josip Broz Tito resided during his visits in Kosovo. The man inhabiting the room is somewhat spooky* entangled with the kid — though he’s non-present in the eyes of the child, they connect through the ever-growing black-hole outside the windows.
* ‘Spooky action at a distance’ is how Albert Einstein famously described the concept of quantum entanglement.
“First of all, what will happen?” by Florian Mehmeti Löffler
Production: Katarzë Films
Cinematographer: Leart Rama
Lead cast: Redon Kika, Tringa Sefedini
Supporting cast: Elisa Maxhuni
Editor: Leart Rama, Florian Mehmeti Löffler
Music composer: Genc Elezaj, Edmond Krasniqi
Sound recording: Atdhe Behluli
Colorist: Leart Rama
Visual effects: Florian Mehmeti Löffler
Styling: Tringa Sefedini, Florian Mehmeti Löffler
Make-up artist: Elisa Maxhuni
Special thanks to: Misal Adnan Yıldız, Tringa Sefedini, Leart Rama, Genc Elezaj, Josephine Pryde, Studio Pryde
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Florian Mehmeti Löffler, born in Germany in 1995, is a visual artist who lives and works in Berlin and Prishtina. He recently graduated at UdK-Berlin in the class of Josephine Pryde.
Solo exhibitions include: „I - See - You - See - Me - See - You“ Spazio ORR, Brescia, Italy (2020), „I am not turning, I am not turning back.“, Neues Off - Yorck Kinos Berlin (2020). His work has been shown in group exhibitions at Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt a.M. (2018) fffriedrich, Frankfurt a.M (2017), Museum für Fotografie, Berlin (2018), Babylon, Berlin (2018) EIGEN+ART Lab, Berlin (2019), SPOILER — Aktionsraum Moabit, Berlin (2020).
Movie Time at Kino ARMATA / organized by SUMMER CULT
-"Sharing” by Granit Dragaj
-“#Hashtag” by Lorena Sopi
-“The Long Spring” by Ermal Duli
-“Vera” by Hana Bucalija
The Hill Where Lionesses Roar (2021) / Director: Luana Bajrami / Length: 82 min. / Language: Albanian / Subtitles: English / Entrance: FREE
SYNOPSIS
Somewhere in Kosovo, in a small remote village, three young women see their dreams and ambitions stifled. In their quest for independence, nothing can stop them: time to let the lionesses roar.
DIRECTOR’S NOTE
"You always come back here, while we only want to leave."
Quoted from an umpteenth discussion with my cousin, as there have been so many, perched on the hill overlooking our village Pleshina. I turn to her: she does not look at me but stares into the distance, worried. It was then I understood that I was touching on a deep, generalized suffering. This place, this country - Kosovo - which fascinates me, is for her, a prison. By this she was also telling me that I was free.
THE HILL WHERE LIONESSES ROAR is the story of three young friends who grew up in a village where ignorance and boredom reign, and who decide in the prime of their lives to get out of it together. The film is carried by these three striking figures who rebel against the injustice of their condition that they did not choose. We follow the evolution of these three hearts that carry us by their laughter, their ardour, their hopes, and tears. Through them, the film paints this age where we question ourselves, this quest for oneself, for the other, this quest for good, but above all the potential of choices. The whole film is built around the feverish desire of youthful emancipation: this rage to break the bonds which inhabit these three young girls.
This theme for me is universal, so I wanted to untie the film from any temporality. However, I decided to set it in Kosovo.
FESTIVALS AND AWARDS
DIRECTORS' FORTNIGHT CANNES
MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
SARAJEVO FILM FESTIVAL - Heart of Sarajevo for Best Actress
PRISHTINA FILM FESTIVAL - Best Director & Best Actress
TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
CALGARY INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL - Grand Jury Prize
WARSAW INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL - FIPRESCI Jury Award
RAINDANCE FILM FESTIVAL - Best Director & Best Discovery
STOCKHOLM INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL - Best Debut & Best Script
IMAGE+NATION FILM FESTIVAL - Best Cinematography & Honourable Mention - Best Feature Film
ABOUT THE FILM
Home is a feeling, they say, but where is home, when you are not allowed to feel at home even within your own body and mind? What is self when it is constantly displaced and rejected?
In societies generously cultivating and maintaining spaces for heteronormative selves to be performed and almost inherently unaccepting to those different from the widely accepted normal - the weight of being is almost unbearable.
Regardless, the fight to break through is fierce!
As I Was Looking Above, I Could See Myself Underneath unveils intimate stories of LGBTQ persons from Kosovo, going through their unceasing search for a safe place that allows them to be.
German-Kosovar Chamber of Commerce (GKCC) organizes the first edition of “Green and Digital Week” between 12-16 September 2022 in Prishtina.
Green and Digital Week will open with a discussion between fintech companies and banks.
Panel will discuss how the digitalization affect financial service industry, what changes occurred and how those changes supported the needs and functioning of the private sector businesses.
Panelists:
Mentor Geci - Director of Department for Banking Supervision, Kosovo Central Bank
Eriola Bibolli - CEO, Procredit Bank
Anita Kovacic - CEO, Raiffeisen Bank
Ylli Dushi - CEO, OneFor
Alban Nevzati - CEO, Swinto
Valon Budima - CTO, Paysera
CONCERT / Jean-François Pauvros & Jean-Marc Montera (FR)
Jean-François Pauvros and Jean-Marc Montera’s performance is a part of Kino ARMATA’s Four Ways from Sundown programme, curated by Sezgin Boynik, Alush Gashi and Vigan Nimani for Manifesta 14 Prishtina, also featuring Felix Kubin, Anna Thew and Sylvain George. Four Ways from Sundown is supported by Foundation Manifesta 13 Marseille.
Jean-François Pauvros is a French musician, electric guitarist and experimental music improviser born in 1947 in Hautmont. He participates in the Mobius group with Gaby Bizien and Philippe Deschepper. The French talent scout Jef Gilson records a first disc of Pauvros with Gaby Bizien in duo whose music is close to British free music. He met Siegfried Kessler with whom he recorded Phoenix 14 in 1978. Jean-François Pauvros recorded in 1985 for the nato discs Le Grand Amour with guitarist Arto Lindsay (ex DNA), singer Ted Milton of the group Blurt and drummer Terry Day; in 1988 was released on the same Hamster Attack label with drummer Julian Fenton, singer Mary Genis and saxophonists Evan Parker and Stan Sulzmann among others.
Jean-Marc Montera is a French guitarist, mainly active in the experimental music scene. Besides being active as a musician, he's also the director of the organisation GRIM, that organises concerts, festivals, workshops and artist in residence projects in Marseille. Montera is active as a player since the 70s and has done collaborations with artists like Fred Frith, André Jaume, Barre Phillips, Yves Robert, Loren Mazzacane Connors, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Louis Sclavis, Hifiklub, Michel Doneda.
Title:
"Negotiating storytelling: Heritage constructs as contested narrative devices"
Organized by:
Manifesta 14 x Research training group DFG 277 Identity and Heritage
Description:
The Research Group "Identity and Heritage" from the Universities of Berlin, Weimar, Dessau and Erfurt has been engaging with the critical analysis of heritage constructions since 2016 through the research of specific case studies. This panel discussion will bring into dialogue their experience within academic contexts with the on-going work by Manifesta on the resignification of Prishtina’s heritage and the role contemporary art has on contesting hegemonic narratives. If, following the words of Catherine Nichols, the writing of history should no longer be left to the historical sciences, what new role should we assign to academia? How do we challenge historiography? How to tell stories otherwise?
Participants:
Research training group DFG 277 "Identity and Heritage"
Paul Domela, Head of Business, Manifesta Biennial
Bekim Ramku, Director of Kosovo Architecture Foundation
The Little Shop of Horrors (1960) / Director: Roger Corman / Length: 72 min. / Language: English / Subtitles: English / Entrance: FREE
The Little Shop of Horrors is a 1960 American black comedy film directed by Roger Corman. Written by Charles B. Griffith, the film is a farce about an inadequate florist's assistant who cultivates a plant that feeds on human flesh and blood. Produced under the title The Passionate People Eater, the film employs an original style of humor, combining black comedy with farce and incorporating Jewish humor and elements of spoof. The Little Shop of Horrors was shot on a budget of $28,000, with interiors being shot in two days utilizing sets that had been left standing from A Bucket of Blood.
The film slowly gained a cult following through word of mouth when it was distributed as the B-movie in a double feature with Mario Bava's Black Sunday and later with Last Woman on Earth. The film's popularity increased with local television broadcasts, in addition to the presence of a young Jack Nicholson, whose small role in the film has been prominently promoted on home video releases of the film. The film was the basis for an Off Broadway musical, Little Shop of Horrors, which was notably made into a 1986 feature film and enjoyed a 2003 Broadway revival, all of which have attracted attention to the 1960 film.
A Bucket of Blood (1959) / Director: Roger Corman / Length: 66 min. / Language: English / Subtitles: English / Entrance: FREE
A Bucket of Blood is a 1959 American black comedy horror film directed by Roger Corman. It starred Dick Miller and was set in beatnik culture. The film, produced on a $50,000 budget, was shot in five days and shares many of the low-budget filmmaking aesthetics commonly associated with Corman's work. Written by Charles B. Griffith, the film is a dark comic satire about a dimwitted, impressionable young busboy at a Bohemian café who is acclaimed as a brilliant sculptor when he accidentally kills his landlady's cat and covers its body in clay to hide the evidence. When he is pressured to create similar work, he becomes murderous.
A Bucket of Blood was the first of three collaborations between Corman and Griffith in the comedy genre, followed by The Little Shop of Horrors (which was shot on the same sets as A Bucket of Blood) and Creature from the Haunted Sea. Corman had made no previous attempt at the genre, although past and future Corman productions in other genres incorporated comedic elements. The film is a satire not only of Corman's own films but also of the art world and teen films of the 1950s. The film is noted as well in many circles as an honest, undiscriminating portrayal of the many facets of beatnik culture, including art, dance and style of living.
‘Childhoods Hijacked’ is a book narrated by 10 parents and family members of children killed or missing in the war, and by 2 children who grew up without parents as a result of the last war in Kosovo.
Through explorations of oral histories, this volume seeks to the pluralization of history and inclusion of children's experiences of war in collective memory, to facilitate addressing the systemic silence and generalizations in the narrative about the last war in Kosovo.
The event will open with the screening of the music/video intervention dedicated to the wartime missing, titled ‘The Vanished’ (published by forumZFD) – directed by Lum Citaku, composed and performed by Liburn Jupolli, with Arta Jashari as soprano, and Edita Pozhegu in the recital of the poem The Vanished by Hans Magnus Enzenberger.
The promotion of the book will open with remarks by Mr. Bajram Qerkini, executive director of Missing Persons Resource Center, and Mr. Nehari Sharri, forumZFD Kosovo Country Director, to be followed by the panel discussion titled 'Kosovo Children: Silenced histories of war’, with panelists Nora Ahmetaj, Human Rights and Restorative Justice Researcher, Activist and Feminist; Dr. Mimoza Shahini, a specialist in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and lecturer in collage AAB and the University of Prishtina; and Korab Krasniqi, forumZFD Kosovo. The discussion will be moderated by Dr. Linda Gusia, a Sociologist and professor at the University of Prishtina.
‘Childhoods Hijacked’ was published in partnership between forumZFD Kosovo program and Missing Persons Resource Centre, supported by funds received from the German Federal Ministry on Economic Development and Cooperation (BMZ) and the Swiss Embassy in Kosovo.
Compartiment Tueurs (1965) / Director: Costa-Gavras / Length: 95 min. / Language: French / Subtitles: English / Entrance: FREE
Six people travel by train overnight from Marseilles to Paris. When the train arrives at its destination, one of the passengers, a girl, is found dead in a sleeping berth. The police led by Inspector Grazzi investigate the other five passengers, suspecting that one of them was responsible. However, as the investigation is stepped up, the other passengers start turning up dead. It is then up to the last remaining two to solve the case, before they become the next victims.
Costa-Gavras (born 1933 in Iraia, Greece) is a renowned Greek-French film director and producer who is known for making films with overt political themes. During the World War II, his father, a tax official in Athens, worked for the left wing resistance movement and became marked as a communist. Later with the defeat of the communists in the civil war, he was jailed. It not only affected the family financially, but closed the door for higher studies for young Gavras. Consequently, he was forced to move to France, where he graduated from Institute for Advanced Cinematographic Studies in Paris. Thereafter, he started working as assistant to various reputed directors and had his directorial debut in mid-1960s with a French thriller film called ‘Compartiment tueurs’. However, his later films began to carry an overt political message, especially ‘Z’, ’État de Siège’, ‘Missing’, and ‘Hamma K’, etc. Today he is a naturalized French citizen and lives in Paris.
This film is screened in partnership with Alliance Française de Pristina, French Embassy in Kosovo and IF Cinema.
L'Aveu (1970) / Director: Costa-Gavras / Length: 140 min. / Language: French / Subtitles: English / Entrance: FREE
The film is about Anton Ludvik, alias Gerard, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs of Czechoslovakia. He realizes he is being watched and followed. One day, he is arrested and put into jail by an organisation that declares itself "above the ruling party" and put in solitary confinement for months without being told the reason why. Through brainwashing techniques, including sleep deprivation, being forced to walk back and forth all the time, and drugs, he is slowly pressured into confessing imaginary crimes and treason and to repeat this confession in a public court. Years later, he meets his now demoted tormentor, who tries to downplay his role at that time.
Costa-Gavras (born 1933 in Iraia, Greece) is a renowned Greek-French film director and producer who is known for making films with overt political themes. During the World War II, his father, a tax official in Athens, worked for the left wing resistance movement and became marked as a communist. Later with the defeat of the communists in the civil war, he was jailed. It not only affected the family financially, but closed the door for higher studies for young Gavras. Consequently, he was forced to move to France, where he graduated from Institute for Advanced Cinematographic Studies in Paris. Thereafter, he started working as assistant to various reputed directors and had his directorial debut in mid-1960s with a French thriller film called ‘Compartiment tueurs’. However, his later films began to carry an overt political message, especially ‘Z’, ’État de Siège’, ‘Missing’, and ‘Hamma K’, etc. Today he is a naturalized French citizen and lives in Paris.
This film is screened in partnership with Alliance Française de Pristina, French Embassy in Kosovo and IF Cinema.
Z (1969) / Director: Costa-Gavras / Length: 125 min. / Language: French / Subtitles: English / Entrance: FREE
In a country ruled by a fragile democracy where the police and the military are set on eradicating all threats from the political left, a member of the parliamentary opposition is murdered in the street right after leading a pacifist meeting. The official inquiry into the case is entrusted to a young judge who becomes aware that this was a political crime committed by two hired killers. To entangle things further, an ambitious journalist resorts to unorthodox means to pile up evidence against several members of an extreme right-wing party, while these in turn accuse police and army high officials.
Costa-Gavras (born 1933 in Iraia, Greece) is a renowned Greek-French film director and producer who is known for making films with overt political themes. During the World War II, his father, a tax official in Athens, worked for the left wing resistance movement and became marked as a communist. Later with the defeat of the communists in the civil war, he was jailed. It not only affected the family financially, but closed the door for higher studies for young Gavras. Consequently, he was forced to move to France, where he graduated from Institute for Advanced Cinematographic Studies in Paris. Thereafter, he started working as assistant to various reputed directors and had his directorial debut in mid-1960s with a French thriller film called ‘Compartiment tueurs’. However, his later films began to carry an overt political message, especially ‘Z’, ’État de Siège’, ‘Missing’, and ‘Hamma K’, etc. Today he is a naturalized French citizen and lives in Paris.
This film is screened in partnership with Alliance Française de Pristina, French Embassy in Kosovo and IF Cinema.
18.08. Thursday, 7:00 p.m.
Kino ARMATA – Prishtina
Book promotion:
RESHAT RANDOBRAVA
Monograph
Text: Dr. Rreze Kryeziu – Breznica
Proofreading: Drita Nimani
Translation: Mik Randobrava
Design: Zeni Ballazhi
Music production: Andin Randobrava
Supported by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports and Municipality of Prishtina
DUR GUR MUR follows a little boy as he wanders around an abandoned train station. Using a surreal and non-linear cinematic language. The director Genc Jakupi explores the relationship between dark heritage and memory, taking his own memories of experiencing deportation to Bllacë during the war in ‘98-99 as a starting point.
This project has been developed as part of the Heritage Space Platform, which is developed by Chwb Kosovo.
AWARDS
Best Actor - Short Movies: Ersin Muhaxheri / Ficimad 2022
ABOUT GENC JAKUPI
Genc Jakupi is an Albanian-American actor. During his teenage years, he moved to New York City from Prishtina, Kosovo and continued his passion for acting and performing by enrolling at the famed Herbert Berghof Studio. While studying there, he became part of the ensemble and took part in many plays like Arthur Miller’s “The American Clock” and Tennessee William‘s “The Long Goodbye”. After his time in New York, he continued his theater education in London, attending courses at Lamda. Then, from 2016, he enrolled at the renowned Paris Ecole Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq. Since its creation, the school has educated many well known theater actors from across the world.
After finishing and graduating the intensive 2 year program at Lecoq in 2018, Genc then went back to Kosovo to play the lead character Flamur in the feature film Drita, which had its premiere at the Zurich Film Festival. His next project had him write and direct a short film named DUR GUR MUR which tells a story of a young boy journeying through a train station. The film had its premiere at the Kosovar film festival Dokufest.
Besides the above mentioned projects, Genc has had appearances in feature films for Bleed for This, You Won’t Be Alone, alongside Miles Teller and Noomi Rapace respectively. Genc currently lives and works in Los Angeles.
TIN DIRDAMAL MASTERCLASS
The Lost Sound of Future
A masterclass on filmmaking that seeks to find new narratives far away from the film world. Where fiction meets non-fiction, where film and non-film converge. Far away from formulas, scripts, film schools and crews. In search of a place where creation and destruction sit at the same table to eat. Using the mistake and limitations as the driving force, the not knowing as the compass. This masterclass is born from a deep love and a great aversion to cinema.
LANGUAGE
English
DURATION
4 hours
GROUP
No limit of number of participants. Filmmakers, non-filmmakers, artists, and non-artists are welcome
ABOUT TIN DIRDAMAL
Born 165 kilometers south of the US-Mexico border, self-taught filmmaker and accidental artist. He measures the success of his films by how much of himself he abandons in the process. Also self- taught in psychology and architecture. He uses mistakes and limitations as his driving force, the not knowing as his compass.
He is an advocate of plagiarism and is a great ignorant of world affairs. He believes that lies can be an instrument to approach truth. It takes him on average 5.5555 years to complete a film. He knows how to find underground water, until recently he had never read a book in his life and he regularly segment sleeps. He is convinced he can document the future and has attempted this numerous times. He is a gypsy and a nomad, he lives in places for 2 to 3 years with the understanding he will soon abandon them. He has lived for prolonged periods of time in Arizona, Bolivia, the North of India, the North of México, the North of Vietnam, the West of Turkey and currently in the North of Albania.
At 23 he grabbed a camera for the first time and made his first accidental and feature length film with the only intention of showing it to his friends and family. This film won a dozen awards in film festivals including an award at Sundance. Until now he has finished 4 feature length films and is currently working on 4 new ones. He is a loner: he directs, produces, acts, writes, does camera and sound, composes the music, edits, color corrects and does the sound design for his own films.
His films have been shown and awarded at some of the most important art venues and film festivals around the world including the Venice Biennale, Visions du Reel, IDFA, Jihlava, Punto de Vista, FICUNAM, etc. He has received grants from Sundance Institute, Tribeca Film Institute and Rockefeller Media Artists. He has been invited to mentor, give workshops and masterclasses at UCLA, YALE, NYU, Hunter, UMASS, Union Docs (Brooklyn), DocLab (Hanoi), etc.
He uses different names, Tin Dirdamal is not his real name.
DEATH IN ARIZONA. Mexico-Bolivia-Germany, 2014. 73 min.
A futuristic documentary of lost love and a tale of a dying civilization. An autobiographical portrayal of a filmmaker that returns to his lost love's empty apartment in pursuit of answers.
Best FIlm / Miradas Docs, Canary Islands
Official Selection / Visions du Reel, Nyon Switzerland
Official Selection / Ambulante Film Festival, Mexico
Official Selection / Morelia International Film Festival, Mexico US Premiere / Union Docs, Brooklyn ‘16
TRAILER: https://vimeo.com/76232488
DARK LIGHT VOYAGE. Mexico-Vietnam, 2021. 66 min.
A Buddhist anti-parable of a journey into the dark light. His daughter looked out the window. It was 20 kilometers away from the Ruc Tribe- a people who are said to have been feeding a fire since the beginning. If they were to let the fire die, humanity would cease to exist. The journey was by train, from the north to the south of Vietnam because the man could not be in one place. He needed to be neither here nor there to understand that thing that so perturbed him.
Award Winner / Jihlava Film Festival
Award Winner / L’Alternativa Film Festival, Barcelona
Official Selection / Torino Film Festival
Official Selection / Mar del Plata Film Festival, Argentina Official Selection / Goteborg Film Festival
Official Selection / FICUNAM, Mexico
Official Selection / Dokufest
TRAILER: https://vimeo.com/524045765
Katarzë Invites brings the iconic Dutch electronic musician Danny Wolfers a.k.a Legowelt for a screening of his feature film AMBIENT TRIP COMMANDER at Kino ARMATA on 29 July 2022.
AMBIENT TRIP COMMANDER is the first feature animation film made by Legowelt. The animation, in which Wolfers’ paintings come to life, is hand drawn, frame-by-frame, using vibrant watercolors and is the achievement of a laborious process which took 18 months to accomplish. With a running time of 70 minutes, AMBIENT TRIP COMMANDER presents a full original soundtrack made by Wolfers himself, which he will perform live during the screening in Kino Armata and which features improvisation on synthesizer. AMBIENT TRIP COMMANDER offers a profound and visually stimulating voyage into Wolfers’ intriguing – and at times, uncanny – fictive world through animation and sound.
artwork: TADI
“Exquisite Corpse: Neo_School" is a collaborative film made by students of the Neo_School: Experimental & Personal Filmmaking educational module organized by Kino ARMATA between 1—6 March 2022, inspired by a poetry game the roots of which can be traced to the Surrealist/Dadaist Movement. The name "Exquisite Corpse" comes from a line of poetry created using this technique: "The exquisite corpse will drink the young wine."
Exquisite Corpse is played by several people, each of whom writes a word on a sheet of paper, folds the paper to conceal it, and passes it on to the next player for their contribution. In this case, students are contributing scenes of a film they made, aptly entitled Exquisite Corpse: Neo_School.
Kino ARMATA is proud to screen twelve films produced during two modules of Neo_School, a one-month informal school module for the production of short documentary films. Selected candidates had the opportunity to attend lectures on various aspects of documentary filmmaking, including production, research, screenplay development, directing, editing, audio, etc., from the leaders in film and research. After intensive theory sessions and developing the ideas for their films, each student produced a short documentary film. They were challenged individually and as a group to operate cameras, edit the film, work on post-production and other aspects of filmmaking process.
Filmmakers:
Vlera Azizi
Blend Bytyqi
Redon Kikaj
Auron Myftari
Valmira Rashiti
Nol Sahatçiu
Eranda Bokshi
Blerta Haziraj
Flaka Kokolli
Agnesa Mehanolli
Qendresa Mehmeti
Era Qena
The education platform is a logical continuation of Kino ARMATA’s building of a creative base for artists, producers, cultural workers, etc. With the help of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Kino ARMATA is now equipped with cameras, audio equipment, editing suites, etc., that allowed all Neo_School participants to produce for FREE their films without any additional technical requirement. Lecturers and mentors at Neo_School are leaders in their areas of expertise, ensuring that students received relevant guidance for developing their ideas and transferring those into the film medium.
Neo_School is supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and Municipality of Prishtina.
BOOK LAUNCH / Jakup Ferri / The Monumentality of the Everyday
Come meet and greet the Kosovo Pavilion Team and grab a copy of the book The Monumentality of the Everyday—this year’s Kosovo’s exhibition by artist Jakup Ferri at the Biennale Arte 2022, supported by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports.
The exhibition curated by Inke Arns is an installation of Jakup’s works such as paintings, embroideries, and carpets, which have been presented in the book designed by Diellza Veliqi and Lira Gjikolli.
CONCERT: Felix Kubin (DE)
Felix Kubin’s performance is a part of Kino ARMATA’s Four Ways from Sundown programme, curated by Sezgin Boynik, Alush Gashi and Vigan Nimani for Manifesta 14 Prishtina, also featuring Jean-Marc Montera / Jean-François Pauvros, Anna Thew and Sylvain George. Four Ways from Sundown is supported by Foundation Manifesta 13 Marseille.
Felix Kubin is a composer, creator of radio plays, performer, media artist and curator. A lovechild of the home recording era (he started to compose electronic 4-track music at the age of 12), his activities span futurist pop, electroacoustic and chamber orchestra music, radio art, lecture performances and writing. In 1998 he founded his own record label Gagarin Records. Over the last two decades, he has released numerous albums of different conceptual formats and played at well over hundred international contemporary music festivals. The French film artist Marie Losier ("The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye") has shot an award-winning docu-phantasma about him that premiered at Locarno film festival in 2019 and has been shown on ARTE TV and film festivals worldwide. Felix Kubin likes to move between high and low culture, clubs and concert halls, as his main concern is the shifting of contexts and expectations.
A limited double LP consisting of music TETRIS from Prishtina recorded between 2009 - 2019 will be released at Kino ARMATA on Sunday, 17 July 2022, from 19:00h.
TETRIS was a Prishtina-based group of art outfitters, creating soundscapes based on hypnotic phrases from a myriad of synths and deep bass. Their ever-changing line-up was prone to heavy analogue manipulation of screeching guitars, classical piano and monotonous beats, adding color to their unpredictable yet (often) explosive performances.
SOUNDCLOUD: https://soundcloud.com/zjtlnj3nhxe9
L'Argent (1983) / Director: Robert Bresson / Length: 85 min. / Language: French / Subtitles: Albanian, English / Entrance: FREE
This film is shown in cooperation with Alliance Française de Prishtina, the Embassy of France in Kosovo and IF Cinema
A forged 500-franc note is passed from person to person and shop to shop, until it falls into the hands of a genuine innocent who doesn’t see it for what it is - which will have devastating consequences on his life, causing him to turn to crime and murder.
French master Robert Bresson pushed his unique blend of spiritual rumination and formal rigour to a new level of greatness. Bresson constructs his unforgiving vision of original sin out of starkly perceived details, rooting his characters in a dehumanizing material world that withholds any hope of transcendence. The film is loosely inspired by the first part of Leo Tolstoy's posthumously published 1911 novella The Forged Coupon. It was Bresson's last film and won the Director's Prize at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival.
Au Hasard Balthazar (1966) / Director: Robert Bresson / Length: 95 min. / Language: French / Subtitles: Albanian, English / Entrance: FREE
This film is shown in cooperation with the Alliance Française de Pristina, the Embassy of France in Kosovo and IF Cinema.
In the French countryside near the Pyrenees, a baby donkey is adopted by young children - Jacques and his sisters, who live on a farm. They baptize the donkey (and christen it Balthazar) along with Marie, Jacques' childhood sweetheart. The donkey is given away to local farmhands who work it very hard. Years pass until Balthazar is involved in an accident and runs off, finding its way back to Marie, who is now a teenager.
Balthazar, whose life parallels that of his first keeper, Marie, is truly a beast of burden, suffering the sins of humankind. But despite his powerlessness, he accepts his fate nobly. Through Bresson’s unconventional approach to composition, sound, and narrative, this simple story becomes a moving parable about purity and transcendence.
Pickpocket (1959) / Director: Robert Bresson / Length: 75 min. / Language: French / Subtitles: Albanian, English / Entrance: FREE
This film is shown in cooperation with the Alliance Française de Pristina, the Embassy of France in Kosovo and IF Cinema.
This incomparable story of crime and redemption from the French master Robert Bresson follows Michel, a young pickpocket who spends his days working the streets, subway cars, and train stations of Paris. As his compulsive pursuit of the thrill of stealing grows, however, so does his fear that his luck is about to run out.
Pickpocket was the first film for which Bresson wrote an original screenplay rather than adapting it from an existing text. A cornerstone of the career of this most economical and profoundly spiritual of filmmakers, Pickpocket is an elegantly crafted, tautly choreographed study of humanity in all its mischief and grace, the work of a director at the height of his powers.
The 10th edition of the Architecture Festival in Kosovo will be held between 4 July – 1 October 2022. During July, 8 public lectures and 3 workshops are planned, while during September, 10 lectures, 5 workshops, screenings of documentary films, urban interventions and an exhibition.
July speakers include Kristina Knauf and Leo Stuckardt from MVRDV.next; Joni Baboci, Get.Layer; Përparim Rama, Mayor of Pristina; Jan Liesegang, RaumlaborBerlin; Luca Molinari; Andres Lepik German Museum of Architecture; Hussam Dhaka AA School; Niko McGlashan, Leventhal Center for Advanced Architecture and Eric Robsky Huntley from the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. All the lectures are open to the general public and will be held at Kino ARMATA.
July 9
19:00 "Who's next, homelessness, architecture and the cities" Andres Lepik
20:00 "Data don't drive: Mapping Up with the Social Justice Movement" Eric Robsky Huntley
The 10th edition of the Architecture Festival in Kosovo will be held between 4 July – 1 October 2022. During July, 8 public lectures and 3 workshops are planned, while during September, 10 lectures, 5 workshops, screenings of documentary films, urban interventions and an exhibition.
July speakers include Kristina Knauf and Leo Stuckardt from MVRDV.next; Joni Baboci, Get.Layer; Përparim Rama, Mayor of Pristina; Jan Liesegang, RaumlaborBerlin; Luca Molinari; Andres Lepik German Museum of Architecture; Hussam Dhaka AA School; Niko McGlashan, Leventhal Center for Advanced Architecture and Eric Robsky Huntley from the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. All the lectures are open to the general public and will be held at Kino ARMATA.
July 8
19:00 RaumlaborBerlin, Jan Liesegang
20:00 "Post-Pandemic Domesticity" Luca Molinari
The 10th edition of the Architecture Festival in Kosovo will be held between 4 July – 1 October 2022. During July, 8 public lectures and 3 workshops are planned, while during September, 10 lectures, 5 workshops, screenings of documentary films, urban interventions and an exhibition.
July speakers include Kristina Knauf and Leo Stuckardt from MVRDV.next; Joni Baboci, Get.Layer; Përparim Rama, Mayor of Pristina; Jan Liesegang, RaumlaborBerlin; Luca Molinari; Andres Lepik German Museum of Architecture; Hussam Dhaka AA School; Niko McGlashan, Leventhal Center for Advanced Architecture and Eric Robsky Huntley from the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. All the lectures are open to the general public and will be held at Kino ARMATA.
July 7
19:00 "Planning for Complexity" Joni Baboci
19:45 "Makkah vs Makkah" Hussam Dakkak
20:30 "Vision for Pristina" Progress Rama
The Mole Agent (2020) / Director: Maite Alberdi / Length: 84 min. / Language: English, Spanish / Subtitles: Albanian/ Entrance: FREE
When a family becomes concerned about their mother’s wellbeing in a retirement home, private investigator Romulo hires Sergio, an 83 year-old man who becomes a new resident–and a mole inside the home, who struggles to balance his assignment with becoming increasingly involved in the lives of several residents.
However, Sergio is 83, not 007, and not an easy trainee when it comes to technology and spying techniques. But he is a keen student, looking for ways to distract himself after recently losing his wife. What could be a better distraction than some undercover spy action? While gathering intelligence, Sergio grows close to several residents and realizes that the menacing truth beneath the surface is not what anyone had suspected.
Maite Alberdi’s The Mole Agent is a stylish combination of an observational documentary and a spy movie, with sleek camerawork and wonderfully watchable characters. It’s a unique meditation on compassion and loneliness that will infiltrate your heart and never let go.
This film is screened in collaboration between Kino ARMATA and DokuFest.
Citizenfour (2014) / Country: United States, Hong Kong / Director: Laura Poitras / Duration: 114 min / Language: English / Subtitles: English, Albanian / Entrance: FREE
CITIZENFOUR is a Documentary film unfolding by the minute, giving audiences unprecedented access to filmmaker Laura Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald’s encounters with Edward Snowden in Hong Kong, as he hands over classified documents providing evidence of mass indiscriminate and illegal invasions of privacy by the National Security Agency (NSA).
Poitras had already been working on a film about surveillance for two years when Snowden contacted her, using the name “CITIZENFOUR,” in January 2013. He reached out to her because he knew she had long been a target of government surveillance, stopped at airports numerous times, and had refused to be intimidated. When Snowden revealed he was a high-level analyst driven to expose the massive surveillance of Americans by the NSA, Poitras persuaded him to let her film.
After four days of interviews, Snowden's identity was made public on June 9 at his request. On June 21, the US government requested that the Hong Kong government extradite Snowden. Snowden manages to leave Hong Kong, but his US passport is cancelled before he can tie up with Havana, blocking him at Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport for 40 days. The Russian government grants Snowden temporary asylum for a period of one year. In 2020 Snowden is still living in exile in Russia.
CITIZENFOUR places you in the room with Poitras, Greenwald, and Snowden as they attempt to manage the media storm raging outside, forced to make quick decisions that will impact their lives and all of those around them.
This film is screened in collaboration between Kino ARMATA and DokuFest.
DAM FESTIVAL ǀ 24.06. – 03.07.2022
Prishtina – Republic of Kosovo
THE OCARINA OF RUNIK
Documentary screening x Q/A
Screenplay: Seadet Beqiri
Director: Genc Berisha
Producer: Fatmir Spahiu
BETWEEN CURIOSITY AND LOVE FOR MUSIC
Book promotion
In Shaqir Hoti's words: A guide on the construction and interpretation of folkloric wind instruments
Author: Rreze Kryeziu - Breznica
Join us for a "SUPER" evening as we introduce you to Kosovo's newest and youngest heroes... THE Y HEROES.
Walk the red carpet, join us for a snack, snap yourself in a super costume and enjoy the premiere of the first episode of Y Heroes: United in Diversity. Y Heroes is an educational mini-series with episodes, supported by UNMIK and implemented by YMCA Kosovo.
The project focuses on the production and launch of a youth-led Kosovo-wide TV program “Youth Heroes” (screening title: Y-Heroes) will support and visualize the positive role of young people in addressing pressing community issues and stimulate them to take constructive action towards multi-ethnic collaboration.
I Even Met Happy Gypsies (1967) / Country: Serbia / Director: Aleksandar Petrovic / Duration: 94min. / Language: Serbian, Roma, Serbo-Croatian / Subtitles: Albanian / Entrance: FREE
THE CULT OF THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF BEKIM FEHMIU
In honor of Bekim Fehmiu, the Albanian artist who reached the pinnacle of success on screen and the world stage, the Kosovo Cinematography Center and the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports organize the screening of "I Even Met Happy Gypsies" (1967) in seven main seven Kosovo cities, including a screening at Kino ARMATA in Prishtina.
The Reason I Jump (2020) / Country: United States, United Kingdom / Director: Jerry Rothwell / Duration: 82 min / Language: English / Subtitles: English, Albanian / Entrance: FREE
This film is shown in collaboration between Kino ARMATA and DokuFest.
Based on the book by Naoki Higashida, a 13-year-old nonspeaking autistic boy, this immersive film explores the experiences of non-speaking autistic people around the world, sharing how those on the non verbal autism spectrum process their environmental data which is different for each of the people affected.
Director Jerry Rothwell uses narrated passages from the book to explain the inner lives of those living with the disorder, while clever audio-visuals attempt to convey the sensory world of severe autism. Rothwell also respectfully follows the everyday lives of five non-verbal autistic people, his film moving from Broadstairs to Virginia via India and Sierra Leone, showing how neurodiversity takes on different forms in various social contexts. It all adds up to a moving and accomplished film that both inspires and educates, and ably demonstrates how individuals and families could benefit from more considered support and political policy.
Sensitively made, thought-provoking and ultimately moving, The Reason I Jump provides telling insights into the neurodiverse worldview. The result is a powerful documentary that presents life through fresh eyes.
"My hope is that THE REASON I JUMP can encourage an audience into thinking about autism from the inside, recognizing other ways of sensing the world, at times beautiful and at times disorientating. I hope the film takes audiences on a journey through different ways of seeing, leaving a strong sense of how the world needs to change to become fully inclusive." - Jerry Rothwell
Man Bites Dog (1992) / Directors: Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel, Benoît Poelvoorde / Duration: 95 min. / Language: French / Subtitles: English / Entrance: FREE
Man Bites Dog is a 1992 Belgian black comedy crime mockumentary written, produced and directed by Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel and Benoît Poelvoorde, who are also the film's co-editors, cinematographers and actors respectively.
The film follows a crew of filmmakers following a serial killer, recording his horrific crimes for a documentary they are producing. Benoit talks about art, music, nature, society and life, while killing postmen, retirees and casual people. Slowly he starts involving the camera team in his activities and they start to wonder if what they are doing is such a good idea, especially when the killer kills a rival and the rival’s brother sends a threatening letter.
Man Bites Dog is a complex and challenging reflection on violence and media. Often luring the viewer into a false sense of safety through the natural humour and relatability of the lead character. Frequently, the film abruptly kills the laughter of the audience with shocking sequences of horrific violence and depravity. Handheld cinematography adds to the frantic tone of the piece while the black and white film is a bold underscoring of the moral repugnance we are witnessing.
Controversial winner of the International Critics’ Prize at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival, Man Bites Dog stunned audiences worldwide with its unflinching imagery and biting satire of media violence.
This film is screened in partnership with the Belgium Diplomatic Office in Prishtina.
Kino ARMATA continues with a series of events that showcases music videos by various local and international artists, as part of a visual or thematic context. The events are monthly; the June episode is curated by Hana Zeqa, fashion designer. You will listen and see music clips from artists like Michele Gondry, M.I.A, Cibo Matto, Romain Gavras, Floria Sigismondi etc.
Opening discussion: WHY SWEAT?
Time: 18.00–19.00
We all sweat. But the sweat of workers is often taken advantage of. With a labor economist, the co-founder of the first sex workers’ collective in the Balkans, a historian and a sociologist we will think about work and ask the difficult question: why sweat?
With: Ardiana Gashi, Borche Manev Bozhinov, Krunoslav Stojaković, Visar Ymeri
Public reading: NON/ESSENTIAL SWEAT
Time: 19.00–20.00
The products of cultural workers' labor are admired, cherished, sometimes almost worshipped. But their sweat as workers is ignored and devalued. What do they sweat for? Join us as they tell us in their own words.
With: Arbër Selmani, Eli Krasniqi and Agnes Nokshiqi, Elona Beqiraj, Jonida Beqo, Nora Prekazi
Live music: SWEATY VIBES
Time: 20.30–22.30
It's not a Carnival without music and celebration. Join us and get down with some sweaty vibes.
With: Don’t Listen To Your Neighbors
The objective of addressing energy poverty during the Kosovo Sustainable Development Week is to discuss and analyze the various dimensions of energy poverty in Kosovo: economic, social, environmental, policy-making, and provide recommendations which meet the needs of those affected by energy poverty.
Under The Sun (2016) / Country: Russia, North Korea / Director: Vitaly Mansky / Length: 106 min. / Language: Korean / Subtitles: English, Albanian / Entrance: FREE
Under The Sun is a 2015 Russian documentary film directed by Vitaly Mansky. The film follows a year in the life of a family in Pyongyang, North Korea as their daughter Zin-mi prepares to join the Korean Children's Union on the Day of the Shining Star.
North Korea permitted only Mansky, cinematographer Alexandra Ivanova, and a sound assistant to visit the country. North Korean authorities objected to the film's screening after discovering that the film crew had smuggled unapproved footage. Under the Sun received mostly positive reviews from critics.
At the end of each day's shoot, authorities would review the footage and delete scenes they deemed unacceptable. To get around this censorship and record unscripted moments, Mansky allowed digital cameras to roll throughout the shoot even after North Korean handlers yelled "cut".
The crew employed a recording system that recorded all footage on two separate memory cards. The crew submitted one of the memory cards to North Korean authorities for inspection and hid the other copy. According to producer Simone Baumann, "The camerawoman is very brave. She put [the memory card] in her trousers when she went to the toilet. They gave one of them to the North Koreans, and the second one they took with them." The film crew then smuggled the footage out of North Korea.
“Like Nazi and Soviet propaganda films, “Under the Sun” offers a vision of social perfection that comes at the expense of messy truth and human complexity. Although unintentionally funny throughout, its evocation of life in a totalitarian society is ultimately chilling. The happy picture the North Koreans struggle to present implies unfathomable depths of violence to the human spirit beneath its glossy surface.” - Godfrey Cheshire for Roger Ebert Reviews.
This film is screened as a collaboration between Kino ARMATA and DokuFest.
You are invited to take part in the annual cinematography awards ceremony.
In cooperation with the Municipality of Prishtina, the Embassy of France in Prishtina and the French Alliance in Prishtina, Kosovo, on the International Children's Day Kino ARMATA presents the program of animated films from the film database of IF (Institut Français). The films are suitable for all ages (especially for preschoolers and students in grades 1-5) and are dialogue free. Movie screening is FREE.
On the occasion of Children's Day, like every other year Britannica ELT School organizes the "Spelling Bee Competition 2022".
The participants of this competition are the students of Britannica ELT School.
This event is open to the parents and families of the participants, but also to others who want to watch our children perform.
Oedipus Rex (1967) / Country: Italy / Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini / Length: 104 min / Language: Italian / Subtitles: English, Albanian / Entrance: FREE
Rescued from abandonment and raised by the King and Queen, Oedipus is still haunted by a prophecy--he'll murder his father and marry his mother.
Mamma Roma (1962) / Country: Italy / Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini / Duration: 110 min / Language: Italian / Subtitles: English, Albanian / Entrance: FREE
Anna Magnani is Mamma Roma, a middle-aged prostitute who attempts to extricate herself from her sordid past for the sake of her son. Filmed in the great tradition of Italian neorealism, MAMMA ROMA offers an unflinching look at the struggle for survival in postwar Italy, and highlights director Pier Paolo Pasolini's lifelong fascination with the marginalized and dispossessed. Though banned upon its release in Italy for obscenity, today MAMMA ROMA remains a classic, featuring a powerhouse performance by one of cinema's greatest actresses and offering a glimpse at a country's most controversial director in the process of finding his style.
Accattone (1961) / Country: Italy / Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini / Length: 117 min / Language: Italian / Subtitles: English, Albanian / Entrance: FREE
"Accattone displays the marks of being obviously influenced by neo-realism: Pasolini uses real settings; shoots these settings in long takes; often uses the panoramic shot; employs non-professional actors; films what André Bazin calls “Images-faits” (“image facts”, whereby objects and people are filmed in such a way that their meaning becomes clear only after the fact, once compared to what came before and after the shot); and with all this realism something seems yet unnatural. Something more than reality is shown. What we see is reality to the power of two. Roland Barthes labelled this as “pseudo-natural.” Precisely, nature revisited by culture. What Paul Schrader called the Transcendental. Realism is stretched to encompass another kind of reality. As Marc Gervais suggests, contrary to many neo-realist films, in Accattone we immediately sense the presence of the filmmaker."
- Antonio D’Alfonso, OffScreen
The Hawks and Sparrows (1966) / Country: Italy / Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini / Length: 89 min / Language: Italian / Subtitles: English, Albanian / Entrance: FREE
"Pier Paolo Pasolini's 'The Hawks and the Sparrows' is a whimsical fantasy about Christianity and Marxism; the question is left open as to whether Pasolini believed in either, or neither. Not that it matters much, Pasolini seemed to say. Hawks still eat sparrows, not matter what a hawk is, or a sparrow."
-Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
TEDx RIT Kosovo is a student-organized event hosted by RIT Kosovo. Event curators, organizing team members, volunteers, and presenters all work on a volunteer basis and are not compensated.
The aim of this event is to share inspiring stories and ideas worth spreading from Kosovars who dare to act differently. With our theme “Dare to X”, we hope to inspire new generations of courageous and innovative minds to think outside the box and not let environmental and social constraints stop them. We hope to inspire our diverse community by sharing stories that showcase what it takes to dare to be different and leave the event-driven to improve our collective future creatively
Open discussion with students of the University of Prishtina on the new industrial policies of Kosovo
Great Freedom (2021) / Country: Austria, Germany / Director: Sebastian Meise / Duration: 116 min / Language: German / Subtitles: English / Entrance: FREE
This film is screened as part of the Days of German Language 2022, in partnership with Embassies of Germany and Austria in Prishtina.
In post-war Germany, Hans (Franz Rogowski), a gay man, is caught in a continuous cycle of surveillance and incarceration as a result of paragraph 175, a law which criminalises homosexuality. After being ‘liberated’ by the Allied forces in 1945, Hans is transferred directly from a concentration camp to prison to finish out his sentence. There, he develops an unlikely bond with his cellmate Viktor (Georg Friedrich), a convicted murderer. As Hans returns to prison again and again over a period of three decades, a relationship that begins with revulsion blossoms into something far more tender between the men.
Winner of the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at Cannes, and anchored by an exceptional performance from Franz Rogowski, Sebastian Meise’s Great Freedom is a searing depiction of love in the face of injustice. Meise’s determination to show history in all its stained reality has real power, a tense, moving portrait of masculinity struggling against the bounds of violence and punishment in which it is placed.
Sami, Joe and I (2020) / Country: Switzerland / Director: Karin Heberlein / Duration: 94 min / Language: Swiss, German / Subtitles: English / Entrance: FREE
Sami, Joe and Leyla are ready. Ready for a truly epic summer after finishing school and ready to get out and grab their slice of life. But what is to come, is diametrically opposed to their expectations and of a different magnitude then they anticipated. Determined to stand up for themselves, the three friends find out how right Leyla’s mom was when she told them: always keep more dreams in your soul than reality can destroy.
The film will be in original version, with English subtitles.
The screening will be followed by a discussion on the topic: "The Diaspora in Cinema: Promoting the Kosovo Image in German-Speaking Countries", with Astrit Alihajdaraj, actor and director based in Vienna, and Ilir Hasanaj, director based in Switzerland.
Four Pills at Night (2021) / Country: Kosovo / Director: Leart Rama / Duration: 25 min / Language: Albanian / Subtitles: English / Entrance: FREE
First special screening in Prishtina of the short film "Four Pills at Night" directed by Leart Rama and produced by Nita Deda.
After the film screening, we will have a chance to have a short conversation with the director and the producer
Synopsis:
With a film to shoot in the near future, a director develops more than a professional bond with his actor. When they go together on a rave, things take an unexpected turn.
Delusion or truth, the two end up with no answers!
Andrei Tarkovsky. A Cinema Prayer (2019) / Country: Italy / Director: Andrei A.Tarkovsky / Duration: 97 min / Language: Russian / Subtitles: English, Albanian / Entrance: FREE
This film is screened as a collaboration between Kino ARMATA and DokuFest.
The life, art and inner world of Russian master Andrei Tarkovsky are explored through the words and images of the director himself in this simple and reverent tribute by the director's son, Andrei A. Andrei Tarkovsky. A Cinema Prayer consists of a rare archival treasure where we see for the first time audio recordings, photographs, film clips and behind-the-scenes footage of masterpieces such as The Mirror (1974), Ivan's Childhood (1962), Andrey Rublev (1966), Solaris (1972), Stalker (1979) and Nostalghia (1983), revealing how these films were developed and realized. Most of the materials come from the archives of Tarkovsky's former apartment, now part of the Andrey Tarkovsky International Institute which is managed by Andrey A. Tarkovsky.
The documentary takes us on a spiritual journey where Andrey Tarkovsky talks about his early memories, his thoughts on cinema, discusses the importance of religion and spirituality, as well as artists who inspired him like Shakespeare, Bach and Tolstoy. Through rare recordings we are close to the director's deeply personal thoughts on topics like existence, death, religion and art.
Ars Electronica Animation Festival 2021 on Tour at Kino ARMATA is a collaboration with Ars Electronica and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Ars Electronica is a platform working at the intersection of art, technology and society through organizing exhibitions, educational programmes and research projects focused on the future of our societies. Founded in 1979 in Linz as a festival it has since expanded to include a laboratory and a museum dedicated to the study and promotion of media arts and digital culture.
Based on the computer animation category of the Prix Ars Electronica international competition, animated pictorial worlds have been a cornerstone of the Ars Electronica media art festival and have been discussed and presented in various forms ever since. Since 2005, the Ars Electronica Animation Festival has been bringing together a multifaceted program at the intersections of animation, art and technology.
The Ars Electronica Animation Festival 2021 on Tour screens a selection of outstanding films submitted to the Computer Animation category Prix Ars Electronica 2021. This tour was produced in collaboration and with special thanks to the Austrian Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs.
Kino ARMATA continues with a series of events that showcases music videos by various local and international artists, as part of a visual or thematic context. The events are monthly; the May episode is curated by Brilant Pireva, multidisciplinary artist. You will listen and see music clips from artists like Massive Attack, Tyler the Creator, The Streets, David Lynch, etc.
Frisson is coming back with this EXCLUSIVE ONE TIME EVENT!
We are screening the "Self." live performance recorded on 05 March 2021 at Kino ARMATA.
This event is an opportunity for all of you who did not have a chance to attend the concert itself due to COVID restrictions at the time.
Gather your friends and join us on this special event!
A multidisciplinary exhibition in three parts, curated by Seda Yildiz.
Various locations in Prishtina: Kino ARMATA, Grand Hotel Prishtina, the artist's studio
Unfixed Place, Ambiguous Time unfolds as three separate exhibition parts and focuses on the multilayered artistic practice of Vigan Nimani (b.1981, Prishtina). It is a mode of presentation in which viewers are invited to navigate between urban landmarks of the city during three days, encompassed by paintings, music, drawings and photography.
Educated as a painter, Vigan Nimani played free improvisation & experimental music in the band Tetris, works as a cultural worker in Kino ARMATA foundation and runs a restaurant (an extension to his studio, housing some of his paintings). Since the early 2000s, he has been an active figure in shaping the local art and culture scene in Prishtina, the capital of Kosovo, which has been developed by the experimentation and self-organization of the inhabitants. Nimani's close relation to his hometown becomes evident in his artistic oeuvre too. This multidisciplinary exhibition, for the very first time, gathers paintings, drawings, sound and photographs to take a broader look into the artist's practice from the early 2010's to present.
The selection of the venues will also help to reveal the exhibition's thematic focus; the notion of time cultural memory. Kino ARMATA, a former cinema in "Yugoslav Army House', which was later used as United Nations headquarters, will host an audiovisual performance. Surrounded by paintings Nimani will play live without the separation of the audience from the stage. Grand Hotel Prishtina, a Modernist architectural landmark which will host rarely exhibited small paintings on wood and other surfaces. The artist's studio in the old town will be the meeting place to have a conversation and examine his modus operandì closely.
Vigan Nimani (b.1981, Prishtina) is a visual artist, musician and cultural worker based in Prishtina, Kosovo. Mainly working with painting, drawing and photography Nimani's practice deals with the notion of memory and past from a non-nostalgic, progressive point of view. His work, which is developed through fragmentations and abstraction, invites the viewer to actively engage in the meaning-making process of the past, at present.
Seda Yildiz (b. 1989, Istanbul) is an independent curator and art writer based in Hamburg. Her practice is inspired by thinking across disciplines including art, music, design, literature, cinema and activism. She is particularly interested to take part in process-oriented, open and experimental projects that foster collaboration and exchange which aims to reach a wider audience.
Il Grido (1957) / Country: Italy / Director: Michelangelo Antonioni / Length: 116min. / Language: Italian / Subtitles: English, Albanian / Entrance: FREE
In a rare male melodrama, a mechanic facing the end of an affair with a married woman wanders across the Italian countryside from the arms of one woman to another looking for satisfaction. Antonioni connects Italian neorealism with the director’s famous works of the 1960s.
Closing ceremony of campaign #VAJZATNËTIK22
The ceremony will include several presentations and works of elementary school pupils, including music performances and cocktail.
Il Deserto Rosso (1964) / Country: Italy, France / Director: Michelangelo Antonioni / Length: 120 min. / Language: Italian / Subtitles: English, Albanian / Entrance: FREE
"In Red Desert, we are on Earth but also on some remote planet, in the present time but also (perhaps) the future. Artists of ideas like Antonioni—unrepentantly highbrow and serious—engage in a permanent gamble with the public: will they be judged pretentious for their pains? In Red Desert, it seems to me, all the cylinders are firing. One cannot miss its passion—or its pessimism. The movie is a beautiful, haunting, and complex meditation on the spiritual cost of modernity."
- Mark Le Fanu, The Criterion Collection
La Notte (1961) / Country: Italy / Director: Michelangelo Antonioni / Length: 122min. / Language: Italian / Subtitles: English, Albanian / Entrance: FREE
"Cinematic trilogies have been all the rage since Pagnol's in the early 30s. But possibly the most influential was the trio that made Antonioni's beautiful, sceptical, ironic muse Monica Vitti the art house pin-up of the 1960s and created a new Italian cinema – cool, oblique, Marxist – to succeed neorealism. It began with L'Avventura, roundly booed at Cannes in 1960 by critics who thought it obscure, and concluded in 1962 with L'Eclisse, which some thought too explicit. Antonioni never made anything better than La Notte, the centrepiece of the trilogy, superbly shot in black and white by Gianni Di Venanzo, the key cinematographer of his time."
- Philip French, The Guardian
L’avventura (1960) / Country: Italy / Director: Michelangelo Antonioni / Length: 144min. / Language: Italian / Subtitles: English, Albanian / Entrance: FREE
Michelangelo Antonioni invented a new film grammar with this masterwork. An iconic piece of challenging 1960s cinema and a gripping narrative on its own terms, L’avventura concerns the enigmatic disappearance of a young woman during a yachting trip off the coast of Sicily, and the search taken up by her disaffected lover (Gabriele Ferzetti) and best friend (Monica Vitti, in her breakout role). Antonioni’s controversial international sensation is a gorgeously shot tale of modern ennui and spiritual isolation.
Kino ARMATA continues the tradition of marking Record Store Day, the event held twice annually since 2008 (on one Saturday every April and every Black Friday in November) to celebrate the collection of vinyls and support the independently owned record stores (unfortunately Kosovo has very few of those).
This will be an all-day event starting at 2 PM and will be held inside/outside Kino ARMATA; we invite you to bring your vinyls so that we spin, exchange, sell or even gift them to one another.
VINYL IS FOREVER!
“Vallja” is the second album of Agim “Bass” Berisha, instrumental music of the ethno jazz, fusion and funk type.
Instrumentalists:
Agim Berisha - bass guitar
Visar Kuçi - violin and guitar
Dukagjin “Dugi” Muhaxheri - saxophone
Muha Veseli - guitar
Besim Gashi “Babuka” - drums
Friday (1995) / Country: United States / Director: F. Gary Gray / Duration: 91 min. / Language: English, Spanish / Subtitles: English / Entrance: FREE
It's Friday and Craig Jones (Ice Cube) has just gotten fired for stealing cardboard boxes. To make matters worse, rent is due, he hates his overbearing girlfriend, Joi (Paula Jai Parker), and his best friend, Smokey (Chris Tucker), owes the local drug dealer money -- and that's all before lunch. As the hours drag on, Jones and Smokey experience the gamut of urban life, complete with crackheads, shoot-outs and overly sexual pastors, concentrated into one single, unbelievable Friday.
Friday marked the screenwriting debut of rapper-actor Ice Cube (along with DJ Pooh) and the feature directorial debut of music video director F. Gary Gray. While developing the film, Ice Cube and DJ Pooh expressed discontent regarding the portrayal of the hood in film, with films such as Boyz n the Hood (also starring Ice Cube) and Colors portraying the hood as violent and menacing. Ice Cube and DJ Pooh felt that these films did not portray the full picture of living in the hood, missing a more lighthearted element, with Ice Cube later saying, "we had fun in the hood. We used to trip off the neighborhood."
As a result, they wished to counteract this, drawing on personal experiences when crafting the characters and plot points. Preparations for the film began after the pair were able to secure funding from New Line Cinema, who granted finance in exchange for a seasoned comedian in one of the lead roles; Ice Cube and DJ Pooh quickly settled on Tucker during casting.
The film was also a commercial success, grossing $27 million worldwide. It then obtained a large cult following, inspiring internet memes and pop-culture references. It launched a media franchise with the sequels Next Friday (2000) and Friday After Next (2002), which have also gained a cult following despite their negative reviews.
Honeyland (2019) / Country: North Macedonia / Directors: Ljubomir Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska / Length: 85 min. / Language: Turkish / Subtitles: Albanian, English / Entrance: FREE
This film is screened as a collaboration between Kino ARMATA and DokuFest.
Nestled in an isolated mountain region deep within the Balkans, Hatidze Muratova lives with her ailing mother in a village without roads, electricity or running water. She’s the last in a long line of wild beekeepers, eking out a living farming honey in small batches to be sold in the closest city – a mere four hours' walk away. Hatidze’s peaceful existence is thrown into upheaval by the arrival of an itinerant family, with their roaring engines, seven rambunctious children and herd of cattle. Hatidze optimistically meets the promise of change with an open heart, it doesn’t take long however, before a conflict evolves that exposes the fundamental tension between nature and humanity, harmony and discord, exploitation and sustainability.
The debut feature from documentarians Ljubomir Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska, Honeyland is made with the widescreen sweep of an epic, yet clearly built from an intimate collaboration between filmmakers and subject. With a surprising sense of humor, it’s a tough and tender portrait of thee delicate balance between humankind and nature, an glimpse at a fast disappearing way of life, and an unforgettable testament to one extraordinary woman’s resilience.
Honeyland received numerous prizes at award shows in Europe and the United States. It was the only film to win three different awards at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. It was nominated for the Best International Feature Film as an entry from North Macedonia, and for the Best Documentary Feature at the 92nd Academy Awards 2020, making it the first documentary in history to receive a nomination in both categories.
“Exquisite Corpse: Neo_School"
TUTOR
Rouzbeh Rashidi
STUDENTS/ARTISTS
Kaltrina Berisha
Likana Cana
Laureta Hajrullahu
Kushtrim Haxha
Lulzim Hoti
Bhavini Joshi
Drilon Kurti
Panot Mahmutaj
Era Ramoja
Toska Salihu
Dita Shaqiri
Oresti Zeneli
Donart Zymberi
“Exquisite Corpse: Neo_School" is a collaborative film made by students of the Neo_School: Experimental & Personal Filmmaking educational module organized by Kino ARMATA between 1—6 March 2022, inspired by a poetry game the roots of which can be traced to the Surrealist/Dadaist Movement. The name "Exquisite Corpse" comes from a line of poetry created using this technique: "The exquisite corpse will drink the young wine."
Exquisite Corpse is played by several people, each of whom writes a word on a sheet of paper, folds the paper to conceal it, and passes it on to the next player for their contribution. In this case, students are contributing scenes of a film they made, aptly entitled Exquisite Corpse: Neo_School.
Notturno (2020) / Country: Italy, Germany, France / Director: Gianfranco Rosi / Length: 100 min / Language: Arabic, Kurdish / Subtitles: Albanian, English / Entrance: FREE
This film is screened as a collaboration between Kino ARMATA and DokuFest.
A group of female soldiers is shown standing guard, clearing empty buildings and relaxing in their barracks. A man in a small boat hunts for water fowl at night with the sound of machine gun fire in the distance. At a psychiatric hospital, a group of patients are given scripts to memorize for a play about the current state of their homeland and are shown rehearsing their parts. At a school, as a form of therapy, children draw graphic pictures of the war atrocities they witnessed and describe their experiences to their teacher.
Shot over the course of three years between Syria, Iraq, Kurdistan, and Lebanon, Notturno follows different people from areas near war zones in the Middle East who are trying to start over again with their everyday lives. The films conveys the Middle East as it emerges from Isis terror, but remaining scarred by the intervention of western powers who had promised so much.
Italian-American film-maker Gianfranco Rosi’s method of patient observation allows him to make poetic connections across borders; a military drill that takes place at dawn is juxtaposed with a group of grieving mothers who wander an empty prison in an orderly procession.
The film shows poetically what all people who live in war zones have in common: the loneliness, the alienation, the survivor-trauma. The film’s most powerful scenes are those that show a therapist working with children who have witnessed or experienced torture at the hands of Isis: they show this in their drawings.
Notturno had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on 8 September 2020. It was selected as the Italian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards.
Gianfranco Rosi is an Italian-American documentary filmmaker. His 2013 film Sacro GRA won the Golden Lion at the 70th Venice Film Festival, while his 2016 film Fire at Sea won the Golden Bear at the 66th Berlin Film Festival.
TER Talks mark 8 April, International Romani Day.
The event gathers people from the political spectrum and civil society, and tackles issues concerning the position of Roma and their cultural identity in Kosovo.
“Jimmy Band” will perform at the end of the event to be celebrated with a modest cocktail.
For Sama (2019) / Country: Syria, United Kingdom, United States / Directors: Waad Al-Kateab, Edward Watts / Length: 100 min / Language: Arabic, English / Subtitles: Albanian, English / Entrance: FREE
This film is screened as a collaboration between Kino ARMATA and DokuFest.
For Sama is a first-person account of exactly what it means to live smack-bang in the middle of an active war zone. Told squarely from a female perspective, it also offers a viewpoint rarely seen in films about conflict. The film was written and produced by the protagonist, Waad Al-Kateab, who also co-directed the film with Edward Watts. The film focuses on Waad Al-Kateab's journey as a journalist and rebel in the Syrian uprising.
When she first starts to aimlessly film her country’s ongoing conflict that steadily grows in violence and complexity, al-Kateab is an optimistic, 26-year-old student armed with nothing but a cell phone at Aleppo University, studying to earn a business degree in 2012.
But as hope gave way to chaos, destruction and crimes against humanity committed by the regime and its allies, options started to thin out; revolution seemed like a distant fantasy. And yet, instead of leaving like many, al-Kateab decided to stay behind and fight for the better future she believed in.
This is Syria in 2016, with the Assad regime, supported by the Russian air force, indiscriminately pummelling Aleppo, hitting houses and hospitals alike. Waad moved here as a student several years earlier, full of hope for change. “For such a long time we were sure we would win,” she declares, a belief shared by the fellow activists caught on Waad’s mobile-phone footage.
Her camera captures incredible stories of loss, laughter and survival as Waad wrestles with an impossible choice– whether or not to flee the city to protect her daughter’s life, when leaving means abandoning the struggle for freedom for which she has already sacrificed so much.
For Sama made history when it was nominated in four categories in the BAFTA awards, making it the most nominated documentary ever. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 92nd Academy Awards. FOR SAMA was awarded the Prix L’Œil d’Or for Best Documentary at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.
Kino ARMATA continues with a series of events that showcases music videos by various local and international artists, as part of a visual or thematic context. The events are monthly; the April episode is curated by Tesa Kabashi. You will listen and see music clips from artists like Beck, Janet Jackson, King Krule, Gary Numan, Busta Rhymes, Pet Shop Boys, etc.