This Kosovar filmmaker deserves better

On my last evening in Kosovo, I finally got to meet Isa Qosja , the director of “Kukumi.” My friend Blerim Gjoci, whose wife Anisa Ismaili is in the film, drove me out to his house, which is in the Sunny Hill neighborhood of Pristina – a sprawling section east of the center that boasts dozens of apartment complexes.

Qosja met us at the door of his house, a stone-enhanced single suburban dwelling that has a great-room living/dining/kitchen area. On the screen of the flat-screen TV, which Qosja and his wife had been watching, was “Prime,” the 2005 Meryl Streep/Uma Thurman film.

We sat and talked about a variety of topics. About filmmaking in Kosovo (“very hard to raise money”), how his film “Kukumi” had been censored for showing in Pristina (it offended KFOR, the NATO armed force that protects Kosovo), how the moneymen behind the film hadn’t done enough to promote it (“they just let it sit”), about the work of Stanley Kubrick (“genius, genius”) and his plans for a film titled something like “The Dog Killer,” in which Blerim hopes to star.

Mostly it was simply an honor to sit in his presence, to eat baklava and drink the best coffee I had been given in Pristina (made and served by Qosja’s wife). Qosja is an intelligent, dignified man, and “Kukumi” is a film that has been unfairly relegated to DVD status.

Not that it hasn’t earned recognition for its obvious quality. It won awards at both the Venice and Sarajevo Film Festivals . But that’s not enough. It should have had a wide-spread international release, even if only on the film-festival circuit. The film is not just a metaphor for the emergence of Kosovo (and for all areas torn by ethnic/religious conflict) but also for the innate fear that society has of the mentally and/or emotionally ill and for the inherent need we all have to connect.

Plus it’s well acted (not just by Ismaili but also by Luan Jaha and Donat Qosja – the director’s son), artistically shot (by Menduh Nushi) and, in Qosja’s cut at least, uncompromising in its ultimate message that prejudice of any kind is as much self-hatred as hatred of others. Any film festival in the U.S. would benefit by showing it.

Including Spokane’s. Or Sandpoint’s. Maybe if either of these festivals decided to screen “Kukumi” they could bring Qosja along, too. Making a film of such uncommon beauty is tough anywhere. But in Kosovo? It’s more like a miracle, and such miracles deserve to be noticed. And honored.