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‘Dua’: A Conflicted Kosovan Coming-of-Age Drama Beset By War
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‘Dua’: A Conflicted Kosovan Coming-of-Age Drama Beset By War

Variety·Siddhant Adlakha·20 days ago
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A coming-of-age drama that gradually turns morose, Blerta Basholli ’s sophomore feature “ Dua ” follows up her Sundance-winning 2021 debut “Hive” as a reflection of Kosovan women in the late 1990s. This time, however, the director draws from her own experiences as a girl who came of age in the shadow of the Kosovo War. The conflict looms large over the film’s Kosovar Albanian teens — as does institutionalized discrimination against them — but Basholli’s intentionally blinkered focus, through the eyes of her 13-year-old protagonist, proves constraining and liberating all at once. Subjective to a fault, “Dua” is, by any overarching measure, a mixed bag of dramatic experiences, yet it unfolds with the confidence of something fully and richly formed. Seal’s “Kiss From A Rose” sets the mood and era, as the camera glances over the shoulder of — and practically past — withdrawn protagonist Dua (Pinea Matoshi), while her high school classmates eagerly discuss which boys they want to flirt with at a party.…

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