Elvira Dones (born 1960) is an

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 ...

n novelist, screenwriter, and documentary film producer. Born in the coastal city of

Durrës Durrës ( , ; sq-definite, Durrësi) is the second most populous city of the Republic of Albania and seat of Durrës County and Durrës Municipality. It is located on a flat plain along the Albanian Adriatic Sea Coast between the mouths of ...

Dones graduated from the State University of Tirana. In 1988 she was employed by Albanian State Television and in this capacity traveled to Switzerland, where she defected. Tried for treason in Albania (''in absentia''), she was sentenced to prison and denied access to her young son until after the collapse of

communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...

in Albania in 1992. From 1988 until 2004 Dones lived in Switzerland where she worked as a writer and a television journalist, while also writing, directing, and producing several documentaries. Since 2004 she has lived in the United States. The bulk of her writing is in either Italian or Albanian, but several of her documentary films have been subtitled in English. Several of these films have either won or been nominated for various awards. Her most recent documentary, Sworn Virgin, tells the story of women in northern

who swear perpetual chastity in their teenage years and become men in their society —not women acting like men or women who have

gender reassignment Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...

, but simply women who are now men. This film was named the best documentary at the

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Women's Film Festival in 2007.

Selected bibliography

* * * * * * * * *

Filmography

* ''Brunilda'' (2003) * ''I ngujuar (Nailed)'' (2004) * '' Sworn Virgin'' (2015)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dones, Elvira Albanian women writers Albanian women novelists Albanian novelists Albanian screenwriters Albanian atheists Women screenwriters 1960 births Living people 20th-century novelists 20th-century women writers People from Durrës 20th-century Albanian writers 20th-century Albanian women writers