Great for those interested in the culture of Albanian Mountaineers.

This epic and emotional film explores the life and consequence of Bardh Sokoli (name translated as “White Lad”), an old gunpowder maker who lives in Northern Albania under the Ottoman occupation and in the midst of a grueling guerrilla war that has lasted for centuries. The film begins with the death and funeral of his only son in combat; his loss is mourned by the entire town, with one friend offering Bardh his own son as an adoptive consolation and as a squire to help produce gunpowder for the cause of routing the invading Turks. He and his new son, whom he grows to love very deeply, try to do what they can to provide the resistance movement with enough powder to continue their guerrilla combat while also trying to deflect the excessive attention of informants and attempting to maintain noble and honorable lives.

Loosely based on George Fisha’s nationalist epic “Lahuta e Malcis” (“Lute of the Highlands”), the film is not as character-based or as focused on plot as many mainstream films tend to be, but the film instead stands as a document of culture and of social rituals. The film covers funeral rituals, traditional Albanian hospitality, tribal law, warfare, politics, courtship, and the besa (“word of honor”), while struggling with the problem of how honor can stand up (or fail) against the trials of a turbulent environment.