Blerta Zeqiri’s The Marriage (Martesa) wins two awards at PÖFF | Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival

The debut film ‘The Marriage’ directed by a well-known kosovan director Blerta Zeqiri won two awards at the closing ceremony of Tallinn Black Nights on Friday 2nd of December.

The film was competing on the ‘First Feature Competition’ category where among 15 other debut films, won the Fipresci Award and Special Jury Prize for the Ensemble of Cast.

The director Blerta Zeqiri on the closing ceremony stated: ‘Being here in Tallinn and premiering our film here was an amazing experience. I want to say thank you to the programmers for selecting the film. I also want to thank the jury for honoring us with this prize. I made this film for an impossible love between two persons of the same sex, because to me wanting to stop love in the name of some social norm is ludicrous. Love is not a crime. Forbidding it though is. So I want to dedicate this prize to the most beautiful feeling of all: Love.’

The Marriage is a coproduction between Kosovo and Albania produced by Keka Kreshnik Berisha and Eno Milkani, supported by Kosovo Cinematography Center and Albanian National Center of Cinematography.

​​Photo by: Johan-Paul Hion
From left to right: Genc Salihu (actor), Blerta Zeqiri (director), Alban Ukaj (actor), Keka Kreshnik Berisha (producer)