{"id":5987,"date":"2026-08-16T08:34:43","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T08:34:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=5987"},"modified":"2026-08-16T08:34:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T08:34:43","slug":"shame-and-money-director-on-sundance-winning-drama-about-a-kosovo-family-in-free-fall-its-a-look-into-the-past-and-a-warning-to-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=5987","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Shame and Money\u2019 Director on Sundance-Winning Drama About a Kosovo Family in Free Fall: \u2018It\u2019s a Look Into the Past and a Warning to the Future\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n\tSundance Grand Jury Prize winner Visar Morina returns to the Sarajevo Film Festival \u2014 the scene of a previous triumph \u2014 with the biting social drama \u201cShame and Money,\u201d which won the top prize in Park City earlier this year and\u00a0is playing in the festival\u2019s main competition.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=5985\">Ranveer Singh, Kalyani Priyadarshan\u2019s \u2018Pralay,\u2019 Produced by Ananya Birla and Hansal Mehta, Directed by Jai Mehta, Starts Filming<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe director\u2019s third feature wowed audiences at Sundance, where\u00a0<em>Variety<\/em>\u2019s chief film critic Guy Lodge praised the \u201cstoic, slowly lacerating look at economic desperation and exploitation in contemporary Europe\u201d as a\u00a0\u201ckeenly observed, sharp-edged portrait of a Kosovo family divided by class.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tMorina\u2019s previous film, \u201cExile,\u201d which also premiered in Park City, won the Sarajevo Film Festival in 2020. That film, about a Kosovan immigrant grappling with paranoia after a string of menacing events, was loosely inspired by the director\u2019s own experience. Born in Kosovo, Morina emigrated with his family to Germany in the 1990s, before the war that would ultimately lead to the country\u2019s independence.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cShame and Money\u201d follows Shaban (Astrit Kabashi) and Hatixhe (Flonja Kodheli), a couple in their forties living with their extended family in rural Kosovo, where they eke out a modest living on their farm. When a family dispute leads to a terrible act of betrayal, their livelihood is suddenly lost.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\tAlong with Shaban\u2019s mother and the couple\u2019s young daughters, they are forced to move to Pristina,\u00a0where the pressure to provide\u00a0weighs heavily on both husband and wife. Piecing together odd jobs, they do their best\u00a0to find a way in the hyper-capitalist Kosovan capital, until the relentless struggle of daily life pushes Shaban to the breaking point.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThough deeply rooted in the sociopolitical realities of Kosovo, a country that\u2019s largely failed to make good on the promises of the post-war order, Morina sees \u201cShame and Money\u201d as a parable of modern-day Europe. Across the continent, he notes, the rising cost of living, housing shortages, stagnant wages and a growing rift between the haves and have-nots has spurred widespread pessimism about the direction in which society seems to be heading.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cWe are actually coming to a point in Germany where it feels like we are going straight to a situation like this in Kosovo,\u201d Morina says. \u201cIt\u2019s a look into the past and a warning to the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe film provides a bleak portrait of Kosovo, a war-scarred country whose social fabric is fraying at the seams: a society where,\u00a0as Shaban is reminded by his brother-in-law, Alban (Alban Ukaj), a nouveau riche businessman who reluctantly agrees to take in the struggling family, \u201cEverything has its place. And every person, too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=5983\">\u2018The Pitt,\u2019 \u2018Hacks\u2019 and \u2018Beef\u2019 Among Astra TV Awards Winners<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tFor the husband and wife duo, that means a succession of low-skilled, low-wage jobs as they scrap to make ends meet. The rigid taxonomy of contemporary urban life couldn\u2019t be more apparent: When Shaban is offered a job as a night watchman at a gated community rising on the city\u2019s outskirts, he explains to Hatixhe that it is a job\u00a0\u201cto keep out poor people like us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\tGradually, Shaban becomes a ghost of himself, in what comes to feel like a natural outcome in a society where a man\u2019s value can be calculated down to the very last cent.\u00a0\u201c\u2018When you\u2019re broke, even your mom doesn\u2019t love you,\u2019\u201d Morina recalls a Kosovan man once telling him. \u201cThere is nothing I associate more strongly with the film than this phrase.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cShame and Money\u201d is written by Morina and Doruntina Basha. It\u2019s produced by Vicky Bane and Schuldenberg Films in co-production with Eagle Eye Films, Vertigo Ljubljana, On Film Production, List Production and Quetzalcoatl. World sales are being handled by The Yellow Affair and Espoo.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tIn both of his most recent features, Morina has been preoccupied with the lives of outsiders \u2014 those who, either because of immigration (\u201cExile\u201d) or class status (\u201cShame and Money\u201d), are shunted to the periphery of society. Increasingly, it seems those dividing lines have become chasms. <\/p>\n<p>\n\tAt a time when the world (briefly) christened its first trillionaire and the ruling classes build underground bunkers or dream of blasting off into outer space, \u201cShame and Money\u201d provides a stark warning about the direction in which things are trending \u2014 both for our societies and ourselves.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cI really believe that people can only take shit to a certain extent. At some point, they go crazy,\u201d says Morina. \u201cThere is this German word\u00a0<em>sozialer Frieden<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 social harmony. And I think at some point, there is a point of no return.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=5981\">\u2018RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race,\u2019 \u2018All Stars\u2019 and \u2018Untucked\u2019 Renewed for New Seasons at MTV and Paramount+<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe Sarajevo Film Festival runs Aug. 14 \u2013 21.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kosovo-born filmmaker Visar Morina talks about class, exploitation and Europe&#8217;s growing social divide in his Sundance-winning social drama.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4235,4657],"class_list":["post-5987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","tag-sarajevo-film-festival-2","tag-visar-morina"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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