| Hunting Flies | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Izer Aliu |
| Written by | Izer Aliu |
| Produced by | Khalid Maimouni |
| Starring | Burhan Amiti |
| Cinematography | Nils Eilif Bremdal |
| Edited by | Izer Aliu |
| Music by | Roy Westad |
| Distributed by | Europafilm |
Release date |
|
Running time | 106 minutes |
| Country | Norway |
| Language | Albanian |
| Box office | $134,067 [1] |
Hunting Flies (Fluefangeren) is a 2016 Norwegian drama film directed and written by Izer Aliu.
Hunting Flies is a drama film set in a classroom over the course of one day. The protagonist, Ghani, is an idealistic teacher who loses his job on the first day of teaching. In a bid to get his job back he locks his students in the classroom and forces them to resolve a long-running conflict between their villages.
Hunting Flies is the directorial debut feature film of Izer Aliu, who also wrote the screenplay. [3] It was produced by Khalid Maimouni, who was born in Tangier, Morocco, in 1979, moving to Norway when he was 11. He has been involved in filmmaking since 2007. [4]
After the project had started in April of 2013, filming was done over 22 days of the hot summer, in a rural area near Skopje in Macedonia. Nils Eilif Bremdal was director of photography and part of a team of only five people. Writer/director Aliu worked from an 11-page synopsis, developing the script as they worked. [2]
There was only one professional actor in the film, Burhan Amiti; the rest were friends and relatives, including the filmmaker's wife, as it was difficult to find women prepared to act in the film. [2]
Writer/director Aliu says that Hunting Flies is "above all, a political film" in which he aimed "to evoke the birth, the flourishing, and the fall of a dictator, within a school setting". He said it was about the loss of principles, and the challenge of remaining true to ourselves "when the system forces us to change". [2]
Hunting Flies had its world premiere in the Discovery section at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival, [5] and went on to screen at many other film festivals. [4]
The film earned many nominations and some wins in several awards in 2017, including:
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Translated from French by Hannah Thompson
