previously published on Cineuropa
A word of honour stronger than any other obligation, according to the Code of Lekë Dukagjini – which served as the unassailable law among Albanians for centuries – is the starting point for the third feature by Montenegrin filmmaker Nikola Vukčević, Tower of Strength. Set in the mountainous areas of Montenegro populated by Albanians during World War II, it depicts the conflict between an SS division unit and an honourable house over the destiny of a boy from an Orthodox village who found refuge there. After its world premiere at Cottbus, the movie is now screening at the Cairo Film Festival.
In his local area, Nuredin Doka (Kosovar-Dutch actor and filmmaker Edon Rizvanolli) is respected as a hero and the representative of his family clan, who respects the Code but is not immune to making a judgement in favour of human life. That is how he let go of the feud with the rival Gjonaj clan and adopted their son instead of killing him. During the war, Nuredin opts to sit it out, minding his own business and surviving by hunting with his son Mehmet (newcomer Elez Adžović), since he does not want to choose sides between the cowardly Nazi supporters and the atheistic communist partisans. But although he is keeping out of trouble, trouble finds him in the form of a boy called Vuk (Vuk Bulajić), who has escaped the massacre in his village and found refuge in Nuredin’s house.
The house is soon surrounded by SS troops led by the fearsome and brutal, but cowardly, Abid (Aleksandar Radulović). One of his subordinates is Sokol Gjonaj (Alban Ukaj, seen in the Dardenne brothers’ Tori and Lokita), a man who has immense respect for Nuredin and feels obliged to facilitate the negotiations between the sides. With no solution in sight, the tension of the stand-off builds up to a climax. However, the internal fight that Nuredin wages with himself, whether to protect the lives of his family members, or his and his family’s honour and good name, is even more tense.
Tower of Strength is a very old-fashioned piece of cinema, for better or for worse. This means that the dialogues written by Ana Vujadinović and Melina Pota Koljević (of Circles fame), with the assistance of Vukčević, sometimes sound too over-written, literal and theatrical in an attempt to channel the depth of the ethical dilemma at the film’s centre. Luckily, the perfectly chosen actors have enough presence to make it work, and this doesn’t just go for Edon Rizvanolli, Alban Ukaj and Aleksandar Radulović, in the “meatiest” roles, but also for veteran thesp Selman Jusufi as Nuredin’s father, Branimir Popović as an army commander, and Nikola Ristanovski as the village judge and the interpreter of the Code.
The directing uses broad strokes, such as omnipresent, ethnic-sounding music by Dušan Maksimovski and an emphasis on the production values through Đorđe Stojiljković’s attractive camerawork. There is also a lot of attention paid to the period details, which can be observed from the production and costume design, as well as from the choice of authentic-looking locations. Edited by Olga Toni and the director himself, Tower of Strength is a tight piece of cinema that evokes the traditional genres of a war movie and a western, without ever over-using the genre approach to the detriment of the drama at the film’s core.