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Erblin Nushi Rising Film Maker - Film
Rych McCain International/Nationally Syndicated Entertainment Columnist
Erblin
Nushi’s Film “Bini”
Impresses
At The HollyShorts Film Festival
The
1990’s marked a crucial turn of events for the people of Kosovo when their ethnic
Albanian leadership declared their independence from the rulership of Serbia.
The result was Serbian forces launching a brutal crackdown where civilians were
taken from their homes by force, gathered and herded up into trucks. Thus began
the war in Kosovo from 1998-99. Over 10,000 Kosovo Albanians were killed and up
to one million were displaced. The UN stepped in and issued an ultimatum to
President Milosevic to stop the military assault. NATO strikes drove Serbs out of Kosovo. Things settled down a bit and in 2008, Kosovo declared
independence from Serbia. Although it is recognized as a legit sovereign nation
by many countries around the world, Serbia has yet to recognize it
.
During
that turbulent period, a six year-old boy and his family were part of a group
of people in their neighborhood that were taken captive by Serbian soldiers.
Six year old Bini is only thinking about his most prized
possession, a piece of candy. When suddenly he and his family are packed into a
crowded truck and faced with life threatening obstacles, Bini learns that candy
may not be the only thing of value he loses that day.”
His family
was one of the lucky ones to survive the war alive. He learned a valuable
lesson that day that there were more important things in life than candy.
 |
| Erblin Nushi Director/Writer of "Bini" |
This is
a true story and that six-year-old boy grew up to be Erblin Nushi who relocated to the U.S. with his family in 2010 and
earned a BA Degree in film from George Mason University. He has directed ten
short films of which some have been showcased at several Film Festivals. He wrote
and directed a short film about his horror filled childhood experience in his
native Kosovo simply titled “Bini.” It
was entered and accepted for The
HollyShorts Film Festival in Hollywood. The film was actually shot in
Kosovo and was so realistic that the viewing audience could feel as if they
were actually there along with the emotion, fear, uncertainty and drama that
those families felt. The film is also a finalist with The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (The Oscar folks), Student Academy Awards which in itself is a major accomplishment but it is even bigger because Nushi's film was the only one from an undergraduate student that made the cut. This accomplishment gets noticed by the biggest studio execs in Hollywood.
When
asked about the story being centered on the candy, Nushi explains, “I remember
the day after the event was supposed to be a holiday where we get candy. It’s
sort of like trick-or-treat for Halloween but we have it for a different reason
for celebration and religion. We went to the store and got a lot of candy and
that’s all I remember because I was only six. I just know that when we left, we
didn’t bring any of it and all I could think about was why didn’t we bring the
candy?” Referring to the film he says. “It didn’t happen like that but I just
know that candy was always in my head growing up because I didn’t know the
reason until I was told of the war and all that. My experience was completely
different from people who could understand and knew more about what was
happening. I was just lucky that I was protected from all of that information.
My parents were there and would not tell us what was happening to protect us
but now here I am telling the story.”
The
story angle with the candy was brilliantly played throughout the entire film.
Was this the result of good training in script writing, personal creativity or
both? Nushi smiles, “Yeah, my school George Mason University, there film and
video studies program really trained me but also gave me the space to explore
my ideas and my story telling. I made nine short films and this is the tenth
and every time I would catch where I would improve myself and my story telling
skills.”
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2018 Rych McCain Media/Syndication TM
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