2025 | Kosovo, Netherlands | Documentary

Mua besoj më shpëtoj portreti (I BELIEVE THE PORTRAIT SAVED ME)

  • Albanian 10 mins
  • Director | Alban Muja
  • Writer | Alban Muja
  • Producer | Edon Rizvanolli

STATUS: Released

This film is currently not available.   

Twenty-five years after his abduction during the Kosovo War, painter Skender Muja recalls a pivotal moment of survival. During the war’s final months, Muja and many Albanian citizens from Mitrovica were captured while attempting to flee Kosovo. Held in a school repurposed as a detention camp, they faced confinement, fear, and an uncertain fate. One day, the Serbian police commander presented Muja with a chilling ultimatum: to draw his portrait on a blackboard. “If it’s good, you’ll be spared. If not, I can’t guarantee anything,” he warned. Under immense pressure, Muja began sketching, aware that his life depended on his skill. The film alternates between two perspectives: Muja creating the portrait and the anxious faces of his fellow detainees. When the commander approves the drawing, Muja believes it saved his life.

Portrait Survival War Art Memory
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