Aga's House

A poignant and uncompromising drama that takes place in a sanctuary for women in a remote backwater in Kosovo.

Nine-year-old Aga grew up in a house full of women and has resolutely decided to find his father, who he believes disappeared after the Kosovo War. We meet the five women in the house as they handle the tomato harvest on an idyllic, sunny slope. They laugh, bicker a bit, and use a rough jargon about each other’s age, attractiveness and sexual experiences or lack thereof. But behind the gaudy laughs lurk everything they cannot or will not touch upon. Lendita Zeqiraj’s strong debut is a low-key story about women trying to live on in the wake of violence. And in the heart of the film lives the result of the sexual violence: nine-year-old Aga.

• Maja Kekonius