''Sworn Virgin'' ( it, Vergine giurata) is a 2015 internationally co-produced

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Laura Bispuri Laura Bispuri (born 20 August 1977) is an Italian director and screenwriter. Biography After graduating in Cinema at the Sapienza University of Rome, Bispuri attended the Fandango Lab Workshop, a school of cinema in Rome. After directing a docum ...

. It was screened in the main competition section of the

65th Berlin International Film Festival The 65th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 5 to 15 February 2015, with American film director Darren Aronofsky as the President of the Jury. German film director Wim Wenders was presented with the Honorary Golden Bear. The ...

Plot

The story takes place in

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 a rugged, impoverished world where women are treated as chattel, some women escape their hard, gender-determined fate by claiming the status of “sworn virgins” before a dozen male elders, after which they don male garb and live as men. They are then granted the privilege to engage in all male activities such as carrying rifles and hunting, but they are prohibited from engaging in sexual activity with either gender. In Albania's remote mountain villages, this custom dates back at least a couple of centuries is still practiced. Though the custom is now fading, it remains a unique aspect of the cultural heritage of these villages.

Cast

Alba Rohrwacher Alba Caterina Rohrwacher (, ; born 27 February 1979) is an Italian actress. Early life Alba Rohrwacher was born in Florence, the daughter of a German father and an Italian mother. From the age of 17 to 21 she studied medicine, intending to be a ...

as Mark/Hana *

Flonja Kodheli Flonja Kodheli is an Albanian-born Belgian actress, musician, pianist and composer. Early life Kodheli was born in Tirana, Albania to parents who were both artists, as her mother Justina Aliaj was a well-known singer and actress and her father P ...

as Lila *

Lars Eidinger Lars Eidinger (; born 21 January 1976) is a German actor. Eidinger started his career at Deutsches Theater in 1997. Before his breakthrough, he played minor roles in German television shows like ''Schloss Einstein'' (2002) and ''Berlin, Berlin' ...

as Bernhard * Luan Jaha as Stjefen * Bruno Shllaku as Gjergj * Ilire Vinca as Katrina * Drenica Selimaj as Little Hana * Emily Ferratello as Jonida

Reception

RogerEbert.com ''RogerEbert.com'' is an American film review website that archives reviews written by film critic Roger Ebert for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' and also shares other critics' reviews and essays. The website, underwritten by the ''Chicago Sun-Times' ...

has rated it a 2 star. In summary it said that the movie lacks dramatic power and unexpected revelation, but its details and subtle developments, such as the evolving relationship between the main character and her niece, are the most winning aspects. The film's setting in a public pool highlights gender performance, but it does not delve into religion, which is an important aspect of conservative rural societies. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

it has a 71% critics score (as of February 2023). On

MetaCritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

it got a score of 70.

References

External links

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Additional reading