Vera dreams of the sea

Vera (a perfect Teuta Ajdini) is a middle-aged sign-language interpreter, who leads a well-structured life: a wife to a renowned judge, a supportive mother, and a caring grandmother. Her serenity is disrupted by her husband's unexpected suicide, followed by an unwelcome, menacing parade of relatives who claim to have ownership over their village family house. When the tendrils of an underworld scheme begin to surface, Vera’s world faces imminent collapse… Steeped in an ominous atmosphere, director Kaltrina Krasniqi’s ‘compelling, thriller-ish tale… [is an] astute, affecting and superbly acted feature debut… As frankly and fearlessly embodied by a terrific Ajdini, Vera is onscreen almost every moment, which is already a coup given that few are the films that take a woman of this particular lifestage and social class as their heroine… This nuanced, nervy story [is] as much a character portrait as it is a social critique.’—Jessica Kiang, Variety