Kenedi Is Getting Married

Kenedi Goes Back Home (IFFR 2004) told the story of Yugoslavs who left the country during war and were sent back home in 2002. Zelimir Zilnik followed the stories of a few families, and especially that of the outstanding ‘rebel with a cause’, Kenedi Hasani. Fascinated by this person, the director found the protagonist two years later in Vienna and shot a short about him.
With his latest film Kenedi is Getting Married, he comes back to the same personage for the third time. It is difficult to specify the genre but one could say it is a social docudrama where Kenedi, from being an object, becomes an active subject of the film. He agrees to re-enact his own life, with a few documentary sequences included.
Kenedi is in considerable debt after building a house for his family. He finds himself searching for any kind of work to support himself – for as little as 10 euros a day. Ultimately, he decides to look for money in the sex business. Initially offering his services to older ladies and widows, he expands his ‘business’ to offer sex to wealthy men. Later on he finds out that the more lucrative business might be marrying someone from the west and he sets off on his search for a suitable partner. According to Zilnik, this is not the end of the story and his artistic fascination will surely have a follow-up. (LC)