Babai

Ten-year old Nori and his father Gezim earn their living by selling cigarettes in pre-war Kosovo of the nineties. Gezim will hear nothing of Nori’s mother. He is an expert at escaping the past and now he wants to flee Kosovo, without Nori. But the boy tries everything in his means to prevent his dad from leaving. An accident results. The shocked father takes Nori to the hospital. When Nori gets out, his father is gone. Angry, yet determined Nori sets out on a perilous journey and indeed finds his father in Germany. With the persistence only a child can have, he confronts his father with leaving him behind.

Fiction | 104 min. | Drama | color |  Format 2.39:1 | Language: Albanian/German | Ger, Kos, Mk, F | 2015

Awards (extract)

“Best Director” Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2015 • “Europa Cinema Label” Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2015 • “Best Director” Filmfest München • “Best Script” Filmfest München • Best Actor (Astrit Kabashi & Val Maloku) Filmfest München •  “Audience Award” 28th Panorama of European Cinema Athens  2015  • “Special Jury Award”  15th Marakech International Film Festival (FIFM) 2015 • “Best Feature Film”Bosphorus International Film Festival 2015 • “Best Screenplay” Bosphorus International Film Festival 2015  • “Best Debute Film” Film Festival Cottbus 2015  • “Prix Cineuropa  15th Festival Cinéma Méditerranéen, Brussels” • “Special Jury Award” CinEast 2015 • “Best Male Actor Award” (Astrit Kabashi) Premiers Plans- Angers Film Festival 2016 • “Best Film” Crossing Europe, Linz 2016 • “European Script Award” (ESA, formerly known as Prix Genève), Berlin 2016  • “MFG-STAR“  Baden Baden, 2016  

Cast

Nori Val Maloku
Gezim Astrit Kabashi
Valentina Adriana Matoshi
Adem Enver Petrovci
Bedri Xhevedet Jashari
Qlirim Armend Ismaili

Crew

Producer: Nicole Gerhards, Visar Krusha, Tomi Salkovski, Xénia Maingot
Associate Producer Katrin Schlösser
Camera/DOP: Matteo Cocco
Set Designer: Jutta Freyer
Hair/ Make Up Artist: Astrid Weber
Costume Designer: Genoveva Kylburg
Casting: Susanne Ritter, Blerta Basholli
Re-Recording Mix: Thierry Delor
Editor: Stefan Stabenow
Composer: Benedikt Schiefer
Commissioning Editors: Andrea Hanke (WDR), Georg Steinert (ARTE)
Screenwriter/ Director: Visar Morina

Production

NiKo Film  in Co-Prodoction with Produksioni Krusha (KOS), Skopje Film Studio (MK), Eaux Vives Productions (F), WDR, ARTE. Funded by: Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, Filmförderungsanstalt FFA, Nordmedia, Kosova Cinematography Center, Macedonian Film Fund, Cinema du Monde

Sales

Heretic Outreach

Festivals (Selection)

50. International Filmfest Karlovy Vary | 33. Filmfest München 2015 | Motovun Film Festival 2015 | Avvantura Film Festival Zadar 2015 | Reykjavik International Film Festival 2015 | Helsinki International Film Festival Love And Anarchy 2015 | Busan International Film Festival,2015 | Adelaide Film Festival 2015 |BFI London Film Festival 2015 | Film Fest Gent – 2015 | CinEast 2015| Hamptons Film Festival 2015| Haifa International Film Festival 2015 | 39th Mostra, São Paulo International Film Festival 2015 |Thessaloniki International Film Festival 2015 |Tirana International Film Festival 2015 | Black Night Film Festival 2015 | Bratislava International Film Festival 2015 | Rencontres Henri Langlois, 2015 Poitiers | CINEDAYS 2015, Skopje | Sevilla Festival De Cine Europeo 2015| Geneva International Film Festival Tous Ecrans 2015 | Cairo International Film Festival 2015 | Bosphorus Film Festival 2015 |28th Panorama of European Cinema 2105, Athens  |Cameraimage 2015 | 46th International Film Festival of India 2015, Goa Festival |Cinéma Méditerranéen, Brussels 2015 |Marrakech International Film Festival 2015 | Cologne Conference 2015, Köln | Unabhängiges Filmfest Osnabrück 2015 | Filmkunsttage Sachsen-Anhalt 2015 – Magdeburg | Filmfestival Cottbus 2015 | Kinofest Lünen 2015 | Exground Filmfest Wiesbaden 2015 | FILMZ 2015 | Around The World in 14 Films 2015 | Filmfestival Max Ophüls Preis 2015| Göteborg Film Festival 2016 | Premiers Plans- Angers Film Festival 2016 | Trieste Film Festival 2016 | Berlin International Film Festival 2016 | Sofia International Film Festival 2016 | Florence Balkan Express , 2016 | Seoul IFF Agape, 2016 | Bozar Center for Fine Arts, 2016  | Ankara Film Festival, 2016  Eskisehir Film Festival, 2016 |Hong Kong International Film Festival 2016 | Cleveland International Film Festival 2016 | Stockholm Filmfestival 2016 | Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival 2016 | SANFIC Film Festival 2016  | Scanorama Film Festival Vilnius | Crossing Europe, Linz 2016