Three Windows and a Hanging (2014)

Summary

In postwar Kosovo, a teacher decides to tell the press about rapes commited by Serbian soldiers during the war. This starts a stigmatising process that reveals the patriarchal honour structure of her home village.

What I liked

• The scenery. Balkan nature is just stunningly beautiful, and the director of photography knows how to present it. On that note:
• The photo. Long, slow scenes that gives you time to ponder what is actually going on. Less words are necessary when you know how to express things with imagery. Also: the zoomed out scenes where stuff happens in a relative distance.
• The plot. Honour culture is insane. Utter madness. I'm happy they didn't bring religion into the film at all, because this goes beyond religion. Religion might of course be part of it, but tradition based in culture, geography and misogyny is as big a culprit here.

What I liked a little less

Smoking. I'm usually annoyed when they need to force smoking into a movie att all cost. This one is different though, here it actually obviously played an important part in the interaction between the characters (especially the men). It was a central part of the relating and culture and added to the unspoken dynamic mentioned above. Thus, I was OK with it in this film, but so many other films just throw it in with no connection to the plot. Feels like obvious product placement.