Discovering the duo as the sole inhabitants of the village of Vërnakolle in south-eastern Kosovo, he has made them the subjects of his measured observational documentary, Fran and Verka; or A Usual Day in an Abandoned Village. The pair have both lived in the village for years, having met one another there, got married there, and resolved to stay there even after the population dwindled. With now just the two stalwart residents, it is one of many ‘ghost villages’ that can be found across Kosovo, a haunted and haunting legacy of conflict.
Despite his ostensible goal of recording these micro-histories, as a filmmaker Nrecaj is scarcely interested in peddling a narrative. An opening blurb sets the scene and provides important context for Fran and Verka’s current situation. It also informs the audience that they ‘remember a lively village where children played in the streets and weddings lasted for a week.’ Beyond this paragraph of text, though, the film remains happy to stand at a slight remove, capturing the everyday tasks that maintain their secluded bucolic life, and trying to find a way to cinematically represent that obvious bond that keeps the couple there despite the situation. The disappearance of community is reinforced in most scenes, but it is especially felt in the film’s final sequence in which sonorous organ music accompanies images of the empty church, a building that would doubtless have been a municipal hub in times past.
Despite all of this, Nrecaj is clearly not interested in presenting a miserabilist portrait of isolation. The solitude of Fran and Verka’s lives is depicted with tragic overtones, but not with a suggestion that they are expressly unhappy with their lot. As they go about their daily chores, the catastrophe is something more profound that emanates deeply from the landscape around them – one of a cultural and civic life that has been washed away by the currents of a violent history. In the craggy faces and bent backs of its human subjects, Nrecaj’s film finds a touching resolve, but the bigger picture is etched with a pervasive sadness.
