A screening of the film The Stork (Lejleku) by Kosovar director Isa Qosja was halted on Wednesday evening at the Xhada film festival in the Zabjelo neighbourhood of Podgorica after a group of people objected to it being shown in Albanian, organisers and local media said.
Organisers said the open-air screening was interrupted after several unidentified individuals voiced dissatisfaction and issued nationalist slogans and threats.
“For security reasons, we decided to stop the screening after a group of individuals expressed dissatisfaction because the film was in Albanian. Police responded to the scene,” festival organisers said in a statement.
Montenegrin non-governmental organisations condemned the disruption as a dangerous attack on freedom of artistic and cultural expression and an expression of ethnic hatred.
“It is alarming that such an incident occurred in a multiethnic state where Albanian is an official language under the constitution,” the NGOs said in a joint statement, carried by local newspapers Vijesti and Pobjeda. They urged police and prosecutors to identify the perpetrators and called on ruling parties to respond, accusing them of tolerating nationalist provocations that have destabilised Montenegro.
The EU delegation in Podgorica, which co-financed the festival, also voiced concern. “Artistic freedom is an integral part of freedom of expression and one of the core democratic values,” it said on social media platform X.
The Xhada festival, which has run for a decade, showcases debut films and documentaries, mostly in open-air venues in Podgorica.
The Stork premiered in September 2024 at PriFest in Pristina. Set in the deserted ethnic Albanian village of Vuthaj near the Montenegro-Albania border, it tells the story of migration through the lives of three generations of women.
The film, produced by Podgorica-based company Artikulacija in cooperation with partners in Kosovo, Albania and North Macedonia, was Montenegro’s first project supported by Eurimages, receiving €80,000 in funding.
Montenegrin writer and public intellectual Andrej Nikolaidis condemned the interruption and, in a commentary, asked: “What should be the adequate response to the practical banning of a film in Albanian? To say: when I see hatred against Albanians, I too am Albanian.”