Ruku mojeju observes the material practices in a convent of fifteen nuns – mostly young women, one of them blind – on a small island in Skadar Lake, between Montenegro and Albania. In the rhythm of work and prayer, set in the endlessly undulating movements of nature, the film revolves around the sensorial experiences of religion. Over a period of nine years, the sensory documentary gradually developed as a result of the filmmaker’s intense involvement in this monastic community.
Koštana Banović
Koštana Banović is a multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker. She was born in Sarajevo, in former Yugoslavia and is currently based in the Netherlands. She holds an MA in Fine Arts. Her cinematic practice addresses the interaction between experimental and cinéma vérité documentary styles and includes a reflexivity belonging to the category of essay-film. Her films have earned her multiple awards and were screened at international film festivals, such as the IFFR in Rotterdam and Ji.hlava IDFF in Jihlava. Her work is part of the permanent collection of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Currently, she is the artistic director of KAMEN Artist Residency in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the director of the Eastern Neighbours Film Festival and producer at artTrace in the Netherlands.