Blood feud
Time: 40-50 minutes
Purpose: You bring the students to a deep and interpretative reading of the text as they plan to transfer it to the cinema screen
Materials: P. 11 of Kadare's Broken April, the story of Northern Albanian blood feud.
Preparation: Copy the text for the students.
Lesson Outline:
- Give out the text and ask the students to read it.
- Group them in 3's or fours and tell each group they are to prepare to film
the events of this page, establishing the shots, deciding on the camera angles,
deciding on the lighting etc. They should briefly describe, too the appearance of
each character. Remind them the film will not be silent.
Tell them to record their decisions as "story-board" or to write the sequences they Envisage.
Tell them they have 20-30 minutes for this work.
- The sub-groups present their mise-en-scene to the whole class.
Note: The wish to visualise accurately normally leads to very detailed and careful reading of the text. In a way filming a page like this is a kind of translation.
From Broken April, Ismail Kadere, 1991, Harvill Press, London, translated from the Albanian
P.11
Night had not yet fallen when he reached the village. It was still his fateful day. The door of the kulla** was ajar. He pushed it open with his shoulder and went in.
"Well?" someone asked from inside.
He nodded.
"When?"
"Just now."
He heard footsteps coming down the wooden stairs.
"There's blood on your hands," his father said. " Go and wash them."
"It must have happened when I turned him over"
He had tormented himself needlessly. A glance at his hands would have told him that he had done everything in keeping with the rules.
There was smell of roasted coffee in the kulla. Astonishing, he was sleepy. He yawned. The gleaming eyes of his little sister, who leaned against his left shoulder. Seemed far away, like two stars beyond a hill.
"And now? He said suddenly, to no one in particular.
"We must tell the village about the death," his father answered. Only then did Gjorg notice that his father was putting on his shoes.
** A stone dwelling in the form of a tower, typical to Albania.
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