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With the fall of the Soviet Union, many former Eastern Bloc countries found themselves in both economic and social crisis. One country that still remains in such hard times is Albania. With a patriarchal and moralistic front, there are many people caught in the country's underbelly of poverty and corruption.
One such person is Mira. She works as a bartender and struggles to care for her sick husband and young son. Her husband badly needs an operation, but Mira lacks the $10,000 it will cost. She tries to get a loan, but the banker will only give it to her if she sleeps with him. Despite her best efforts to raise the money and keep her morals, eventually she has nowhere else to turn.
The trickiest part of watching this film is the native language it was recorded in and the culture barrier. The filmmakers did add English captions - which is very important - and they were easy to read and understand. But I still can't help thinking that I must have missed something. The structure of the film feels a bit disjointed, making it a little difficult to understand. It took a while to figure out why Mira needed the money, who she needed it for, and that she even had a husband and son. There were a few little vignettes that hinted at it - such as a glimpse of her son playing the violin and asking if his father was going to die - but it perhaps wasn't as clear as it could have been.
Since I don't speak Albanian nor do I know much about that culture, it's possible that I would have missed more subtle hints that may have been obvious to a native speaker. But if the intent is to market Mira internationally, these types of plot items need to be made clearer in order to avoid the obvious culture barrier.
Perhaps the best part of reviewing international films is being able to get a glimpse of another country and culture. In Mira, I really loved the inclusion of a lot of unique art, advertisements, and even newspapers in many of the locations. The use of multiple locations also gave a good look at the city, and some insight into the characters as well.
There were some nice visual effects in this film. While Mira was on a bus, there was a great use of blueish overhead lighting that gave a great shadow effect. And a few times throughout the movie there was a split-screen used - often times when characters were on the phone. This is a good but often under-used effect for phone calls. The filmmakers also made skillful use of what looked like a Dutch head – a tripod attachment that allows a great range of tilting and twisting of the camera. This added a lot to several scenes, especially one location that had a mirror on the ceiling.
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