During Enver Hoxha΄s cruel, forty-year dictatorship, no one from Serbia was allowed to visit neighboring Albania, over whose soil were scattered several hundred thousand defense bunkers. Today, after the conflicts in Kosovo, there is still only a very small number of Serbs who decide to visit Albania. Prejudice and bad politics have contributed to a latent intolerance between the two nations.

Three years ago, Genc Permeti, a young painter and writer, and his colleague Ilir Butka, also a writer and film producer, unexpectedly invited me to show three of my films in Tirana. Those were Cabaret Balkan, Midwinter Night΄s Dream, and The Optimists, my so-called « Serbian trilogy ». I must confess that I hesitated, but they were so insistent that I finally gave in and went to Tirana. During the entire time my films were shown, Tirana΄s only movie theater was filled to capacity; people were even standing in the aisles off to the side. Even today, I recall with much emotion the exceptionally long applause at the end of each showing and the audience΄s questions, which were not even for one moment malicious, but utterly open, intelligent, and fair. What most surprised me then was the fact that the Albanian audience was familiar with the majority of my early films through pirated copies, which was practically the only way to become acquainted with Serbian films.

During my first stay in Albania in December of 2006, I met many intellectuals who thought like I did, who were beyond any kind of fiery nationalism. I discovered that Albanians and Serbs, although they speak two completely different languages, have much in common, notedly the deep desire to become an integral part of Europe. During long conversations over a glass of raki (Brandy), the idea was born that we try, through our combined efforts, to make a movie, which I would direct with a mixed crew. One week after my return from Albania, I wrote the first synopsis.

I imagined the film as a triptych. The Albanian story, with the cooperation of Genc Permeti, is about a young couple who wishes to leave Albania because circumstances don΄t allow them to fulfill their relationship. Next, the Serbian story is about a young couple who also want to go to western Europe in the hope that they will have more chances there than in Serbia. Finally, the third part intertwines the destinies of these two couples. Their stories unwind parallelly and they never meet, as would usually be the case in standard films. However, I am convinced that at the end of the film viewers will have the impression that these young people, are in the same imaginary space, while they wait on the threshold of Europe; the Albanians in a port in southern Italy, and the Serbs on the Hungarian border in the backroom of a small railway station. Nevertheless, after the first bitter disappointment on the border of that so green "better" world, dawns a new morning for both.

The creation of this joint production film, the first Albanian-Serbian coproduction, which we immediately entitled "Honeymoons", became possible one year later when we received financial support from the Serbian Ministry of Culture and the Albanian National Film Center, as well as the Apugilla Film Commission. The filming flowed without any major difficulties, even though we communicated with each other in a mixture of English, French, Italian.... After two months spent together, farewells between the Serbian and Albanian crew was touching, almost melodramatic; everyone had tears in their eyes. We all wanted to shoot together just one more film...and one more.... It is of note that the Serbian and the Albanian actors have never met, even though they have acted in the same movie. Their first meeting will be at the film festival in Venice.