The story of Hil and Nok, two man linked to gjakmarrja, the bloody vendetta, which is a rule of Kanun, an ancient Albanian customary law.
According to the Kanun, honour is as important as life itself. Often it can be an offence that provokes a killing, and this, in turn, can start the gjakmarrja. Who commits murder “falls in blood” with the family of the victim, and if the two sides can’t manage to make peace, the feud begins. Who cannot be forgiven becomes ‘ngujar, and he is forced to stay closed inside his home for fear of being killed.
The family of Hil, tainted with the murder of Antonio Preka, have fallen ‘ngujar and after sending mediators for 14 years they were able to reconcile. Nika’s family, guilty of killing Ferdinand Preka, after 11 years has not yet been pardoned. Antonio and Ferdinand were brothers therefore the Vila and the Nika families have been in blood with the same family.
When Hil and Nok became ‘ngujuar, they suffered a lot for this forced segregation and every aspects of their everyday life became difficult and complicated: they lose their job, their freedom, their social status and became poor.
This story intersects the telling of Adem Isufi and Kol Tom Kola who are mediators and through negotiations seek to bring peace between the parts.
The tellings of these four characters describe how Kanun was and how it is changed today, explaining not only its negative aspects, as the involvement of women and children in the bloody vendettas, but also its positive principles such as honor, loyalty, hospitality, great-heartedness and individual liability.
Through the personal experiences of the protagonists and the accounts of mediators, teachers and albanian intellectuals, the documentary tells the complex evolution of Kanun, from the origins up to communist dictatorship period, untill its modern twists and its relations with the state laws.
