The movie
Silence of Sirens
Writer-director Gazmend Nela is very good at constructing a dramatic thriller around themes showing the trickle-down effects of corruption on everyone in society when the cops and others in positions of responsibility are manifestly tainted.
Description
Solid family man Avni (Sunaj Raça, terrific) is a traffic police officer – neither very honest nor very brave – in a small town in Kosovo. Together with his partner Gezim (Allmir Suhodolli), he accepts petty bribes (a day’s take may reach €100) from the drivers they stop for speeding. One night, the duo stop a rude, drunken, and decidedly entitled international court prosecutor (or so he says) and escort him to the station. The duffel bag full of money they discover in the back of the prosecutor’s car is a clue that Avni and Gezim are about to find themselves embroiled in a corruption case way beyond them…
Writer-director Gazmend Nela is very good at constructing a dramatic thriller around themes showing the trickle-down effects of corruption on everyone in society when the cops and others in positions of responsibility are manifestly tainted. Avni is a decent man at heart just trying to make a better life for his family in a completely untenable situation. This is a tense revealing film, beautifully acted, that could not be more un-American in style and substance.
Director Gazmend Nela will be present for a Q&A on Friday and Saturday.