'Shame and Money' Wins Sundance, Screens at Sarajevo
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- "Shame and Money" won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize earlier this year and is now competing in the main competition at the Sarajevo Film Festival, running Aug 14-21
- The film follows Shaban (Astrit Kabashi) and Hatixhe (Flonja Kodheli), a Kosovo couple in their forties forced to relocate to Pristina after a family betrayal costs them their farm
- Variety chief critic Guy Lodge praised the film as a "stoic, slowly lacerating look at economic desperation and exploitation in contemporary Europe" and a "keenly observed, sharp-edged portrait"
- Director Visar Morina, who emigrated from Kosovo to Germany in the 1990s, frames the film as both "a look into the past and a warning to the future," warning that Germany is approaching conditions like those depicted in Kosovo
- The film is produced by Vicky Bane and Schuldenberg Films with co-producers including Eagle Eye Films, Vertigo Ljubljana, On Film Production, List Production and Quetzalcoatl; world sales are handled by The Yellow Affair and Espoo
- Morina's previous film "Exile" won at Sarajevo in 2020; "Shame and Money" is his third feature, and his central thematic preoccupation — outsiders shunted to society's periphery — has shifted from immigration to class
Why it matters: By drawing a direct line between post-war Kosovo's frayed social contract and rising inequality across Western Europe, Morina positions the film as a continental cautionary tale rather than a regional drama — making a Sundance jury prize and a Sarajevo main-competition slot a notably pointed platform for a message about European economic decay.
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