THE MARRIAGE (MARTESA)

THE MARRIAGE (MARTESA)

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2018 -- Kosovan director Blerta Zequiri's first feature length film is Kosovo's entry to the Oscar foreign language derby and would be of interest to the LGBT community. As to whether or not it makes it to the short list would be a stretch. I can think of at least five foreign language films I've seen this year that are better.

That said, the film does have its merits, especially as a first feature effort by Zeqiri. She begins her story in a Kosovo Albanian refugee camp with Bekim (Alban Ukaj) and his fiance Anita (Adriana Matoshi) waiting to get news of the whereabouts of her missing mother and father. They encounter her uncle who didn't know the guy he'd been talking to was his niece's fiance. That didn't stop him from immediately giving them advice to make lots of babies.

The film then jumps to Kosovo with Bekim and Anita putting the last few details on their upcoming wedding. We meet more of Anita's friends and a few of her family members including a flashback to a time when Anita was young interacting with her now missing mother. The editing is crude at the very least as we get lost in the time frame.

Out of nowhere comes Bekim's friend Nol (Genc Salihu) who has been out of country for a while, supposedly with a girlfriend who was the love of his life, but dumped him. It turns out that Nol and Bekim were one-time gay lovers. In fact once Nol shows up, Bekim gets the itch.

Things get even more interesting when Bekim's parents start flexing their muscle around with the wedding and Anita and Bekim and now Nol. Nol wants Bekim to dump Anita which leads up to an ending at the wedding.

Poor editing and a very, very anticlimactic ending that should have been more than it was, kills off this very watchable film. This is one of those things Zeqiri will have to work on in future films.

"The Marriage (Mastera)" is a better than decent first effort that could have used a little more editing care and clarity. It loses its edge near the end when you wind up saying to yourself "Is that it?" [Slavic with English subtitles.] -- GRADE C+ -- GEOFF BURTON

GEOFF BURTON