TIRANA, June 23 /ATA/ The 16th edition of the Balkan Film and Culinary Festival is being held in Pogradec, bringing together film, culture, food, and cultural exchange.

Screenings, discussions with filmmakers, and culinary events will run from 23 to 27 June. Organisers say the programme invites audiences to celebrate Balkan arts, traditions, and diversity on the shores of Lake Ohrid.

Tonight at 19:00, at the “Lasgush Poradeci” cinema in Pogradec, the film “Maricel” will be screened.

The film explores the employment of a Filipino woman who arrives in a mountainous village in Cyprus to care for an elderly couple. What begins as a routine job gradually evolves into a story shaped by silence, emotional dependency, and unspoken truths. Positioned between duty and human closeness, Maricel confronts the fragile boundaries that connect care, loneliness, and the need to feel heard.

Meanwhile, the following day is dedicated to short films from the University of Prishtina and the University of Tirana. The screenings will take place in the evening at the central square of Pogradec.

The festival programme also includes feature films, documentaries, and animated works, as well as productions made before the 1990s, including “Komisari i dritës” by Dhimitër Anagnosti and Viktor Gjika.

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