SWORN VIRGIN

Hana Doda, still a girl, escapes from her destiny of being a wife and a servant, a future imposed on women in the harsh mountains of Albania. Following his uncle's guide, she appeals to the old law of the Kanun, which gives women, taking an oath of eternal virginity, the chance to embrace a rifle and live free as men. For everybody Hana becomes Mark, a "sworn virgin".
But something alive pulses and frets under these new clothes. Her choice becomes her prison and those immense mountains seem so narrow now. Mark decides to set out on journey, too long put off. She leaves her land and arrives in Italy, where a new journey begins; a continuous and subtle path, crossing the line of two far away and different worlds: Albania and Italy, past and present, masculine and feminine.
Slowly Mark discovers her body again. She experiences the vertigo of touching other bodies and she finds caring, loving people life had denied her. She opens up to an unexpected and prohibited love's chance.
Mark rediscovers Hana, finally piecing back together the two souls that for years have lived inside her body. She is reborn as a new, free and complete creature.

Laura Bispuri, after a degree in Cinema at “La Sapienza” University of Rome, was selected to attend the direction and production school “Fandango Lab Workshop”. With her short film Passing Time she won the David Donatello Award (Italian Oscars) for Best Short Film in 2010. Passing Time was also selected as one of the eight best short films in the world at the “Short Film Golden Night”, organized by Académie des César in Paris. With the other short film, Biondina, she was awarded in 2011 with Nastro d‘Argento (Top Italian Film Critics Award) as “Rising Talent of the Year”. Sworn Virgin is her first feature film that in development’s phase was selected by the Cannes Film Festival’s “Atelier de la Cinéfondation”, by New Cinema Network at the Rome Film Festival‘s International Project Workshop, by Les Ateliers d‘Angers of Jeanne Moreau and by The Venice Film Festival’s “Gap Financing”.