Lis, a 10 year old boy, whose father is missing, lives cramped in a small apartment with his family during early post-war Kosovo. The burden put up on him to become a man by society, pushes him to fulfill a suppressed dream and join a small circus crew of 3 French people who are in Kosovo to entertain the children. Through this journey, Lis will learn a lot about himself, and the French people about their naivete and ignorance about a war trauma and the actions it could lead to.


In 2000, 6 months after the NATO bombing of Serbia due to their ethnic cleansing of Albanians in Kosovo, chaos was diminished but anarchy flourished. Called the “Cold Peace” era by international journalists. LIS, a 10 year old boy, who’s father is a missing person from the Kosovo war, lives in a cramped apartment with his resilient mother AJSHA (42), confused grandmother HAVA (72), stoic sister NORA (17) and infantile brother JONI(5).
Their city has signs of war all over. Buildings with bullet holes and burned marks, broken windows and smashed walls. They suffer from water and electricity shortages and can watch TV only when Lis is holding their indoors antenna at the right spot. They try listening to the news as much as they can. Every time there is talk of a potential new mass grave, they are on the edge of their seats. Lis is the only kid of the neighborhood who doesn’t taunt the old Serbian Man of the neighborhood living in his van. When Lis’ cousin ARTAN (20) is sent back from Germany, to which he fled during the war, things get only more complicated. Artan tries to make himself useful by looking for work every day, albeit not with success. At least Artan living with them, now scares off the creep neighbor who just recently broke in the abandoned apartment next to them and is now occupying it. A day after he has a dispute with his family, who sell his beloved Walkman, Lis accidentally encounters a small foreign circus troop, that stopped at his city for a show, in their journey throughout Kosovo to entertain the children of the land. The three clowns, 2 male and 1 female, arrived from a place of goodness and naivety, without having any clue how a war scared society exploring democracy looks like, and what it is capable of.
Lis amazed after experiencing their comedic routine joins them, after tricking them that he has no family and anywhere to go, and that he can help them navigate and be their translator. JEAN-PIERRE (39) is sceptic about taking him in, but he gets outvoted and persuaded by AGNÈS (33) and ROBERT (55). The small odyssey on the circus troops trailer throughout the deepest ends of Kosovo and their painful, heartbreaking and absurd adventure begins.
It is very hard to move around for them, not only because of the lack of infrastructure, but also because their maps are worthless. Soon they stop at a ruined school yard, with the school building being roofless. The three of them start their Stalin skit. Even though the kids don’t


Born in 1990 in Mitrovica, when Zgjim was 8 years old, he and his family had to flee Kosovo, because their house was burned down during the war. After many years of sacrifices and hard work, he could achieve his dream. Holding a BA and MA from the University of Prishtina in Film and TV directing, Zgjim is also a prolific screenwriter. Having written over 200 episodes for TV and tens of short films.
His debut short “A Month” (2017) and second short Salon (2019), traveled to over 70 film festivals including Cairo IFF, Atlanta FF, Torino FF, Rhode Island IFF, Brussels SFF, Busan ISFF, New Directors / New Films, TIFF, Hollyshorts etc. He won 10 awards at festivals around the world.
His first feature film in development “2000: A Post-War Odyssey” was selected as part of Berlinale Script Station 2020, Torino Film Lab Extended 2020, Valletta Film Lab 2019, Budapest Debut Film Forum 2020 and won a development fund from the Kosovo Cinematography Center. He is an alumni of Berlinale Talents 2020 and Sarajevo Talents 2016.


Being an introvert child, film wasn’t only escapism for me, but the main source of joy for my infant persona. From my recollection, I was exposed to films as early as the age of 4, when my father bought a VHS recorder. My joy of films turned into an obsession and eventually brought the autodidact in me, as I would end up speaking fluent English and German only from watching films in the respective languages in a matter of couple of years. Of course, as a toddler I wasn’t watching Bresson or Fassbinder, but rather Disney animations and German dubbed Adriano Celentano comedies. 2000: A Post-War Odyssey is inspired by a childhood experience of mine. After we returned to Kosovo from being war refugees in Turkey, we didn’t have where to go, since our house was burned down during the war. We had to move to a different city. My parents, grandmother, my brother and I, lived in a one-room apartment provided by my uncle from end of 1999 to 2002. Even though I was still a child, I could recognize that this period was almost anarchical. Water shortage, electricity restriction, revenge crimes, occupation of private property, smuggling etc. One day, during my first year there, a trailer interrupted our football game at an improvised playground. It seemed to have appear out of nowhere. We were afraid at first, but then a group of three people came out dancing and juggling. The relief was immediate. Their routine lasted for about 30 minutes and I never saw them again. I kept thinking about them through the years; who they were, where did they go, what did they want, did they get it. This script is my romanization of their story.