A Man, Set to Wed a Woman, Longs for His Male Lover in The Marriage

Kosovo's official Oscar entry is The Marriage, a drama set two weeks before a man named Bekim is to wed a woman named Anna. Amid wedding preparations, Bekim slips away and reconnects with his ex-lover, Nol, a man still in love with him.

Director Blerta Zequiri turned her lens toward marginalized groups after she gained basic liberties following the 1999 Kosovo War.

"LGBT community members, although protected by the Kosovo laws, are continuously threatened, humiliated, and physically attacked, to which the state turns a blind eye." she says. "Hiding their identity remains the only way to survive in this surrounding [areas], forcing a large number of LGBT people to marry eventually a partner of an opposite sex, who inadvertently turns into collateral damage. In our film, this partner is a woman, already marginalized and without a voice in our patriarchal society. For me it is unacceptable and at the same time incomprehensible to see two people who love each other so much unable to be together. This is why I think same-sex love in Kosovo is today's Romeo and Juliet story."

Watch the star-crossed lovers' quarrel between Bekim and Nol in the clip below and download The Marriage on iTunes.