Synopsis

Hakie is 71 years old and lives a self-sufficient life in a hamlet in the Albanian alps. Everyday life in this rural remoteness is shaped by an archaic separation between the roles of men and women. Following the parents’ death, Hakie has inherited the house and farm and since then has lived alone, working in the home, meadow and the fields. A way of life that women are normally prohibited from leading, were it not for a religious prophecy. Is Hakie a man or a woman? Hakie is a “Burrnesha”, a sworn virgin. They are biological women who have sworn to remain virgins in order to live in society as men. Hakie lives “the life of a man” with great resolve, with all its freedoms and restrictions.