Blerta BASHOLLI
Asian Premiere
Most of the scenes in the film are based on what I experienced and what happened to me. I was fifteen at that time, and I became sixteen when the war ended. Witnessing protests, watching the news, being part of all the discussions at home, leaving the country, it¡¯s all based on my life. I wanted to talk about the threat and the need to leave when you really love your country. All these topics are important to me, and through the help of my co-writer Nicole Borgeat, we managed to intertwine these moments. When you¡¯re making a film about small countries like Kosova, there¡¯s always a temptation to explain because it¡¯s complicated. There are two nations, two languages, nobody can tell the difference between them, and not many people know what really happened. They just know there was a war. In this sense, we tried to focus on Dua and to tell that journey through her.
Blerta Basholli is a Kosova-born writer and director. During the war, she took refuge in North Macedonia and Germany. Her debut feature film, Hive (2021), premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where it made history by winning the Grand Jury Prize, the Directing Award, and the Audience Award in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition, the first film ever to sweep all three awards in that category. Dua is her second feature.