Visar Morina's third feature film, "Shame and Money," won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize earlier this year and is now in competition at the Sarajevo Film Festival. The director previously won at Sarajevo in 2020 with his film "Exile," which also premiered at Sundance.
The social drama follows Shaban and Hatixhe, a couple in their forties living with their extended family on a farm in rural Kosovo. After a family dispute leads to an act of betrayal, they lose their livelihood and are forced to move to Pristina with Shaban's mother and their young daughters. There they struggle with low-wage jobs as they attempt to survive in what Morina describes as a hyper-capitalist environment.
Morina said the film explores broader European anxieties about the cost of living, housing shortages and growing inequality. "We are actually coming to a point in Germany where it feels like we are going straight to a situation like this in Kosovo," he said. "It's a look into the past and a warning to the future."
In discussing the film's themes, Morina recalled a phrase from a Kosovan man: "'When you're broke, even your mom doesn't love you.'" He said there is nothing he associates more strongly with the film than this statement. "I really believe that people can only take shit to a certain extent. At some point, they go crazy," Morina said.
The Sarajevo Film Festival runs August 14-21. The film was written by Morina and Doruntina Basha and is produced by Vicky Bane and Schuldenberg Films in co-production with Eagle Eye Films, Vertigo Ljubljana, On Film Production, List Production and Quetzalcoatl.
