Bota jonë

Wow wow wow!

Attended this screening at Gothenburg Film Festival and had really low expectations but 10 minutes in I knew this was something extraordinary and got hooked.

Bota Jone is one of the strongest film portrayals of friendships I've seen. It shouldn't be possible for Luàna Bajrami, a 22-year old, to do such a great movie like this! Only Xavier Dolan comes to mind who did a tremendous debut at 19. Bajrami might be the modern Orson Welles!

The actors are amazing with intense chemistry. Albina Krasniqi is tremendous and Aurora Ferat's eyes shows so much emotions and curiousity.

Nothing with the plot is predictable, there are plenty of vague details that leaves the viewer with unanswered questions ina good way and the ending is so so good! This is the Kosovan equivalent of the This is England saga.

The only thing that bothers me is the international title and the sudden use of dropping F-bombs in English which felt out of place. Phantom Youth sounds so vague while the French and Albanian title seems to be "Our World" which is much better.