Alumni
AISHA / North Macedonia
HANIS BAGASHOV
Born in 1999 (22-year-old) in North Macedonia. Hanis Bagashov studies film directing at NATFA “Krastyo Sarafov” in Sofia, Bulgaria. He is Berlinale Talents, Sarajevo Talents, LIM – Less is More (Le Groupe Ouest), European Short Pitch, First Films First (Goethe Institut), Go Short Campus alumnus. His short “Mishko” premiered at Sarajevo Film Festival in 2018. He played one of the leading roles in the feature “When the Day Had No Name” by Teona Strugar Mitevska (Berlinale 2017), and “Sisterhood” by Dina Duma (Karlovy Vary 2021; Netflix). He exhibited his photographic work at the Museum of Contemporary Art – Skopje. His short film project in development “Grasshoppers” won the First Prize granted by Région Bretagne at European Short Pitch 2020.
SYNOPSIS
Aisha and Sabedin, a middle-aged couple, live in a small Albanian village in North Macedonia. Sabedin is a former firefighter, while Aisha embroiders wedding dresses from home. They don’t have children, and their mutual existence is a silent war; they eat separately, sleep separately, and hardly talk to each other at all. One day, Aisha decides to start having driving lessons with her newphew, the instructor Bekim. These lessons make Aisha blossom, while a family secret is revealed.
DIRECTOR'S STATMENT
Aisha is a story about a broken family and an attempt to glue it back together, told from the perspective of the main character Aisha. She and her husband have buried their feelings for the sake of keeping the status quo, but nonetheless I am interested in the ways how these people grow to depend on each other.
Training and Markets:
LIM – Less is More 2020
Best Pitch Award at PriFORUM – Prishtina International Film Festival 2019