Directed by: Redi Mazi
Screenplay: Genc Permeti
DOP: Spiro Nino
Genre: Fiction
Subgenre: Drama
Year: 2024
Running Time: 18’51”
Country: Albania, Spain

IMDb

Logline:

Dori is a 30-year-old boy with development disabilities. He dreams of becoming an actor. He knows by memory all Shakespeare plays, (he sings and dances Elvis Presley’s songs) and all his day is organized in function of possible meetings with producers, directors and actors who can introduce him in the theatre and film industry.

Synopsis:

Dori is a 30-year-old boywith development disabilities. He dreams of becoming an actor. Heknows by memory allShakespeareplays, (he sings and dances Elvis Presley’s songs) and all his day is organized in function of possible meetings with producers,directors and actorswho can introducehim in the theatre and filmindustry. He is not taken seriously;he is even offended and at best finds people who feel sorry for him. He does not give up if there is no role for him in the next play or movie,as he will wait for the one after. And so, the days go by…He lays downwatchingthe starry ceiling reflected by the lamp inhis bedroom, waiting for dreams takinghim on the stage.

Director’s Statement:

Dori is a real person. He is disabled but very vital. Maybe he has the burden of his obvious limitations inside him, but outside he is always smiling. He has a slight walking problem but he acts as almost it was a walking in style.

His dream carries a lot of difficulties in it because people want beautiful portraits full of voice and sculped bodies. Dori is almost an anomaly in this system of Instagram images, faces made to look the same and lots of male facial treatments. Dori, is Dori. He insists. His life and purpose are like a train who would not stop even though his parents who are the people closest to him with all the love they carry, see the success of their son as a winning lottery ticket.

Dori’s confrontation with this world is not easy and becomes even more difficult when confronted with characters who could make his dream come true. They are producers, directors, actors, acting students etc. Most of them aim for their success and their image as usual. The competition is fierce and no one is welcome. The laws of the jungle do not spare the weakest.

In this aspect Dori faces many walls. Nor are insults and ridicule missing. This highlights other people who at least have the kindness to stand by him. So always at the same table we will have the bad, the good, the intelligent or the less intelligent that is easy to become bad.

Dori resists. On the eve of tears, he finds the strength to talk about friendship. He has no friends for real. He finds the strength to make jokes. He actually has jokes in every communication of his, even when he tries to pay without having enough money. Dori is brave at the end. He faces daily defeats but he is prepared every morning to face it again without blinking.

The film is shot with Arri Alexa and professional Zeiss legacy lenses that create a warm effect to describe theater halls or others ‘temples’ where Dori feels good. We will also play with lighting, highlighting Dori a little more in the dark theater hall, because inside he feels like he is on stage even though he is the public. The subjective camera will fit the positive image Dori has of the world, as he is a positive person, while confronted with more realistic and colder angles often times.

I wanted to have in the whole movie the confrontation between the world of Dori and the rest of the world as in the soundtrack, the lighting of scenes, camera angles and the montage that passes from the long take of Dori’s journey when he leaves home, to dynamic montage and disfigured faces when confronted to the wickedness of peers.

Trying not to exaggerate,  not sparing any of the filmic tools, whether it is the style, technical or post production audio and video to describe in the most detailed way this fragile and real character of our days.

Redvis Mazi