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Locals re-enact scenes from Kosovo in the 1950s in the docu-fiction "La beauté de l'âne".
Keystone
"La beauté de l'âne" is a poetic reappraisal of the history of an entire generation: Geneva-based director Dea Gjinovci returns with her father to his lost village in Kosovo.
It is warm colors that make up this film, even in the destructive moments of war. Scarves flutter in the wind, longing resonates in the father's voice. "La beauté de l'âne", it has to be said, is an aesthetic masterpiece. One that is difficult to put into words.
The warm colors are those of the photos that Swiss-Albanian director and producer Dea Gjinovci looks at. It is the beginning of a journey: The filmmaker and her father, who has been living in exile in Geneva for sixty years, return to his home village of Makermal in Kosovo. The village was destroyed in the war and the only thing that remains are the stories of the surviving villagers. Through them, daughter and father attempt to recreate the collective memory of a Kosovo that has disappeared, revealing both intimate and historical truths.
"All the stone houses have disappeared," says the father at the beginning as he walks through his village. "The war has taken them." He walks along the road, then onto a meadow, leaning on a stick: "This is where it was, the house. Two storeys high."
The house is rebuilt for the touching docu-fiction. Just a hint, actually, just a scaffolding, a few pieces of furniture, for example a bed with bedding. And a staircase in the center, leading to nowhere and yet everywhere.
However, the locals bring life to this open-air stage: they act out the father's story - scenes from Kosovo in the 1950s. They reveal shocking things, remember everyday things, but many things remain unanswered, such as the mysterious disappearance of the grandmother. This kind of movie within a movie is a clever way of dealing with both the funny and the beautiful, as well as the horror of war - it could be any war.
"You brought me back to a village that only exists in my memory," the father says indeterminately to his daughter at one point. Dea Gjinovci has done much more: among other things, she has shown how important it is to come to terms with history and how poetic such a reappraisal can feel.*
*This text by Nina Kobelt, Keystone-SDA, was realized with the help of the Gottlieb and Hans Vogt Foundation.
21.05.2026, 11:17
