The Hill Where Lionesses Roar

This beguiling, tactile film is the directorial debut of now 20-year-old actress Luàna Bajrami (Portrait of a Lady on Fire), who briefly plays a French visitor to a Kosovar village tucked in foggy, g cine europeo reen hills. There, the three female protagonists lounge in the suspended animation of their coterie, until thievery unleashes their inner roar. With the unforced confidence of Sofia Coppola, Bajrami trains her rarely blinking camera on three fluid young women: Li, Jeta and Qe. Each is ambivalent about the love-hate relationship they have with their deceptively serene hometown, never quite certain of the freedoms it affords. When hopes for their future are dashed by institutional prejudice, they double-down on their criminal activities. In the process, Li falls for the sole male member of their gang, Zem, and Jeta and Qe grow closer, bonded by their long-time friendship and the unspoken violence of their male family members, as well as the warmth of one another’s bodies. Their emotional and monetary coffers filling, the gang finds themselves in a high-stakes game of chicken: who will stay behind and who will follow through?