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The Albanian (Shqiptari)

The Albanian (Shqiptari)

Movie · 2010 · 15 people

Johannes Naber directed The Albanian (German: Der Albaner, Albanian: Shqiptari) from a script he wrote with Christoph Silber, and this 2010 German-Albanian drama was made with the companies Neue Schönhauser Filmproduktion and Albfilm. It was introduced through festivals in June 2010: the Munich Film Festival screening fell on June 28, and it also played at the Moscow Film Festival. It opened in Germany on August 4, 2011 and in Switzerland on January 26, 2012.

Nik Xhelilaj plays Arben, who loves the pregnant Etleva (Xhejlane Terbunja). Her father demands a bride price of ten thousand euros, and Arben promises to find it within six months. The money he earns shuttling between Greece and Albania is not enough, so he sets out for Germany, from Europe's poorest country to its richest. There he has neither a visa nor a name, and is simply called "the Albanian". He cleans for a pittance, sleeps on the street and earns barely twenty euros a day, and soon finds himself in human trafficking, where both risk and money run high.

The film was a major success in Albania, drew attention abroad and won several prizes, among them the Max Ophüls Award and a special jury prize in Moscow. Xhelilaj won best actor for the role at the 47th Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival.

DirectorJohannes Naber
Production companyNeue Schönhauser Filmproduktion, Albfilm

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Cast

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Nik Xhelilaj Nik Xhelilaj Actor · 43 years old Arben Ivan Shvedoff Stipe Erceg Çun Lajçi Luan Jaha André Hennicke Bruno Shllaku Eva Löbau Yllka Mujo Hazir Haziri Marian Meder Julian Deda Kim Young-Shin Lutz Blochberger Heiko Pinkowski

Through different eyes

AI-assisted editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives. They are not reader reviews; those are below.

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

The film talks about migration in figures rather than big words: a ten-thousand-euro bride price, a six-month deadline, barely twenty euros a day. A young man going from Europe's poorest country to its richest, squeezed by both tradition and the labor market, captures the core of undocumented migration. Stripping the hero even of his name, so that he is simply called "the Albanian", sums up the invisibility of a migrant without papers in a single word. The bride price will not feel foreign to Turkish viewers either, which is why the film can strike a chord here too.

Cinephile Looks at script, editing and directing choices; keeps a distance from formula films.

Naber's film is a drama that takes care not to turn poverty into a spectacle of suffering. The hero's path, from shuttling between Greece and Albania to living on the streets in Germany, is built like a space that narrows a little more with every step. It's no surprise that Nik Xhelilaj won best actor at the Antalya Golden Orange for this role, since the film rests its whole weight on him. My reservation concerns the stretch where human trafficking enters: there the story drifts towards the familiar patterns of migrant dramas and moves on a sense of inevitability rather than surprise. An honest, tightly made film, held up by the weight Nik Xhelilaj carries.

Action & Thriller Fan Puts pace, tension and set pieces first; little patience for slow drama.

If hearing "human trafficking" makes you expect a thriller, let me say it up front: this isn't a crime film, it's a slow-moving drama. The tension rises as the risk and the money grow, but the film delivers it through the hero being cornered, not through chases or fights. If you want pace, the first half may feel long. The stakes are serious and there's a real sense of danger; that is the payoff for sitting through the first half.

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