While moving, Anri Sala, an Albanian art student, discovered a twenty year old 16mm newsreel containing images of the head of the Communist Youth Alliance addressing a large meeting in Albania. But her words had been lost with the film's soundtrack. As the years passed, this woman left behind the ideals, the deceptions, and the rebelliousness of her youth to raise her son Anri.
Intent on learning the contents of the speech, which his mother Valdet cannot remember, Anri seeks out former party leaders, and technicians who helped to produce the film. But Anri takes the reel to a school for the deaf in Tirana, where lip readers decipher his mother's words. Anri then shows his mother the film again, this time with her words recovered and subtitled on the screen. As she confronts her younger self, Valdet's communist ideals and the current chaos in Albania collide, offering a moving reflection on the country's history and present state.
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To learn more, or to purchase this film, visit First Run Icarus Films.
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