''A Cup of Coffee and New Shoes On'' (

Albanian Albanian may refer to: *Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular: **Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans **Albanian language **Albanian culture **Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...

: ''Një filxhan kafe dhe këpucë të reja veshur'') is a 2022 internationally co-produced

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

film written and directed by

Gentian Koçi Gentian Koçi (born 1979) is an Albanian film director and screenwriter. He is best known for writing and directing the films '' Daybreak'' and ''A Cup of Coffee and New Shoes On'', both were selected as the Albanian entry in the Best Foreign La ...

. It is inspired on a real case where 2

deaf Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an Audiology, audiological condition. In this context it ...

brothers suffer from a

degenerative disease Degenerative disease is the result of a continuous process based on degenerative cell changes, affecting tissues or organs, which will increasingly deteriorate over time. In neurodegenerative diseases, cells of the central nervous system stop wor ...

that will eventually leave them blind. It stars

Edgar Morais Edgar Morais is an actor and filmmaker. He studied theater in Lisbon, Portugal and was a student of Ivana Chubbuck in LA and Susan Batson in NYC and has worked with globally celebrated filmmakers such as Larry Clark, Victoria Mahoney, Teresa Suth ...

and

Rafael Morais Rafael Morais is an actor. He studied theater in Lisbon, Portugal and at the Stella Adler Academy in Los Angeles. Rafael Morais has worked with globally celebrated filmmakers such as Nick Hamm, Marco Martins, Luis Prieto, João Canijo, Tiago G ...

. The film was selected to represent

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

in the Best International Feature Film category at the

95th Academy Awards The 95th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), will honor films released in 2022, and is scheduled to take place at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California on March 12, 2023. Comed ...

. The film was nominated at the

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, or PÖFF ( et, Pimedate Ööde Filmifestival), is an annual film festival held since 1997 in Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia. PÖFF is the only festival in Northern Europe or the Baltic region with a FIA ...

in the Critics' Picks Strand section.

Synopsis

Agim and Gezim are thirty-something identical

twin brothers Twin Brothers is a Navajo Sandstone mountain in Zion National Park in Washington County , Utah, United States. Description Twin Brothers is situated immediately north of The East Temple, and immediately south of Mountain of the Sun, toweri ...

who have been deaf-mute from birth. They work and live together, sharing a bright, airy apartment in the Albanian capital

Tirana Tirana ( , ; aln, Tirona) is the capital and largest city of Albania. It is located in the centre of the country, enclosed by mountains and hills with Dajti rising to the east and a slight valley to the northwest overlooking the Adriatic Sea ...

. But as monozygotic twins they share more than space in each other's lives; they also have an identical genetic makeup. And lurking in their DNA is a time bomb, a rare and incurable inherited condition which means that both brothers will permanently and completely lose their sight as well their hearing.

Cast

The actors participating in this film are: *

as Gezim *

as Agim * Drita Kabashi as Ana

Idealization

Koçi said he found it an intriguing idea to make a film that deals with complex and evolving human relationships and the fundamental question of what happens to a person, when they are completely immersed in darkness and

communication Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquir ...

with the world becomes difficult. The three lead actors and producer Blerina Hankollari spent six months learning

Albanian sign language Albanian Sign Language (AlbSL, ) is one of the deaf sign languages of Europe. It is unrelated to other sign languages of the Balkans. It is relatively young, having developed primarily since the collapse of Communism in 1990. During the communi ...

at the Albanian National Association of the Deaf (ANAD).

Release

The film premiered on November 21, 2022, at the

. The film was released in Albanian theaters on November 24, 2022. In 2023 it should reach Portuguese theaters.

References

External links

* 2022 films 2022 drama films Albanian drama films Greek drama films Kosovan drama films Portuguese drama films Albanian-language films Sign-language films Films set in Albania Films shot in Albania Films about twin brothers Films about deaf people Films about blind people Films about death 2020s Greek films {{Drama-film-stub