Humanism and family troubles clash in the Albanian film A Shelter Among The Clouds by Robert Budina.
There are more ways than one to tell that religious cohabitation is still a fragile process, and there is a single way (iterated in many ways) in A Shelter Among The Clouds - to tell that communism, with its authoritarian practices, held all those strings together. In the age of democracy and globalization, new methods are being sought, not always kind to its more sensitive members.
The new Albanian/Romanian co-production, directed by by Robert Budina (A Shelter Among the Clouds is his sophomore film) follows a narrative trajectory similar to the one that Ozu used in Tokyo Story, but using religion as a dividing weapon instead. Tracking shots here, between family scenes, replace Ozu's static, meaningful contexts, as if the meaning has to be grasped at the moving intersection of the shots.
The main character, Besnik (Arben Bajraktaraj), is a lonely shepherd and devoted Muslim in a northern Albanian village; he lives with his goats and the ailing communist father, Fadil (Bruno Shllaku) - whose Enver Hoxha pic above the bed won't really help him recover. Soft-spoken, more at home with the grand vista of Albanian mountains than his own home, Besnik (we learn) is a person who needs both medical help and love. His mother having died at 46 (a devoted Catholic), Besnik has to endure the visit of his two brothers, Fitore (Irena Cahani) and Alban (Osman Ahmeti). Fitore and her family are devoted Muslims, while Alban and his own family have moved to Greece for work -and converted to the Eastern Orthodox tradition. This leaves Besnik's religious syncretism without a stand, as siblings need to take up an increasingly large share of his own space.
Vilma (Esela Pysqyli) 's welcome experience could change things for Besnik. In an altogether serene representation of state authorities, Vilma is an Institute of Monuments official, giving a positive representation of state authorities. She takes care of the discovered Roman Catholic murals in the village Mosque, found by none other than Besnik himself. Sometimes she needs to take care of Besnik himself. Vilma is mostly lit like an ethereal presence, and her goodwill needs to unite both devoted Christians and Muslims. This task ultimately needs to fall to Besnik as well, adding to both family dysfunction and past troubles.
Magnificently lit by Marius Panduru, mountain exteriors are staged by Robert Budina as covering blankets for Besnik's tormented soul. A Shelter Among the Clouds uses a mostly passive (but not pathetic) character; people come and go out of focus behind him, and their stories affect Besnik, but they are not the important ones. In one of the early scenes, when the always-greedy-for-space Alban moves to visit his ailing father, we stand with Besnik and his emotions inside the house, while the exteriors of Alban's family and their car are seen through the window bars. Clearly, they are the ones who are in chains.
Besnik also has the power to influence the future, as a much warmer night scene with his niece would testify, and folk stories can make the rest of the family and the village go nuts. The character comes out stronger than the film's intended politics of religious tolerance, which seem inconsequential here. The better points of A Shelter Among the Clouds come from the dynamics of family scenes, as well as from Arben Bajraktaraj's own performance, an enigma between a wannabe sage and the fool of the village. It is the sense of a lost home (rather than a convoluted religion) that the film registers in both high and low registers. It feels fragile, homely when goats invade the scene, and tense when humans enter a divided house. Not much magical realism, but an individual, half-won humanistic battle against all realistic odds.
Cast and Credits
Α Shelter Among the Clouds (2018, 83')
Besnik……………… Arben Bajraktaraj
Vilma………………..Esela Pysqyli
Fitore………………..Irena Cahani
Fadil………………….Bruno Shllaku
Alban………………..Osman Ahmeti
Directed by: Robert Budina
Written by: Robert Budina
Director of Photography: Marius Panduru
Edited by: Ștefan Tatu
Production Designer: Leandër Ljarja
Sound Designer: Marius Leftărache
Sound Mixer: Darko Spasovski
Music: Marius Leftărache
Produced by: Sabina Kodra
Production Company: Erafilm
Co-producer: Cristian Nicolescu
Co-production company: Digital Cube Romania
Financial Support from: CNC Albania
