Enke Fezollari

Sworn Virgin

The sworn virgin Hana/Mark follows the example set by the ancient Antigone and turns herself into a peculiar, Balkan version of the iconic maiden. In protest against the absurdity of power, she decides to bury her own body, as opposed to the body of a dead brother, in the rocky landscape of Shkodër, Northern Albania. The persecuted female body, buried alive in “death’s stone bridal chamber,” is at the centre of this modern “myth.” Hana voluntarily renounces her femininity and takes on the male alias “Mark” in an effort to secure the most basic of human rights: self-determination and freedom. Her decision enables her to escape the violence of Hoxha’s patriarchal, totalitarian regime in communist-era Albania. Ultimately, she succeeds in creating a perfectly distinct and respectable identity for herself. Will things take a turn for the worse, though, when the “progressive” West “liberates” those persecuted bodies? When the heroine travels to America to reunite with her beloved ones, she will be compelled to address the conflict between her female nature and the masculine prison she made for herself.