SYNOPSIS

 Soni (35), an unemployed woman, lives in a modest apartment in Tirana with her teenage daughter Ema (16) and her mother-in-law Leta (67), a retired widow. Her husband Altin (40), once a popular football player, jobless ever since his short carrier ended, has emigrated to Germany on a work visa, in hopes of securing a better future. The three women—each shaped by a different political and social system in Albania—share the cramped space in relative harmony, largely thanks to Soni’s selfless nature and quiet strength. The apartment’s small balcony, filled with plants and flowers lovingly tended by Soni, along with Leta’s meager pension, are their only sources of income.

When Soni’s beloved uncle Agim passes away after a long illness, she steps in to organize the funeral. But at Agim’s apartment, his grieving wife Tefta reveals a crushing truth: the money set aside for the funeral is gone. Leta had borrowed it months earlier to help Altin settle in Germany—and never paid it back. Soni, blindsided and enraged because no one told her about this, takes it upon herself to find the money and arrange the funeral, all within a single day. Altin doesn’t answer her increasingly desperate calls. At the bank, she’s hit with another betrayal: the house deed, once jointly owned, no longer bears her name. Without her knowledge, Leta and Altin forged the document, naming him sole owner so he could marry a German woman and gain residency.

Feeling shut out from her own life, Soni leans into desperation. She sells her blood on the black market, turns her balcony plants into flower arrangements, and negotiates with the funeral home for a discount coffin. But it’s not enough. In a final act of sacrifice, she smashes Altin’s prized football trophy, sells it, and uses the money to pay the debt and cover the funeral costs. Just when she thinks the day is over, she takes on one last burden—reporting Leta’s forgery to the police. For Soni, protecting what remains of their fractured home matters more than anything else: that the three of them—herself, Ema, and Leta—can somehow still move forward, together.

DIRECTOR’S NOTE

The Three of Us is deeply personal to me. I was raised in a large traditional family, within a patriarchal society transitioning from one of the harshest communist regimes in the world toward democracy. The economic crisis that accompanied this systemic change brought with it a crisis of identity and family. In my family, men were considered the most important members; they spoke first and always made the decisions. Traditionally, men were chosen for jobs, inheritance, and ownership. Despite the political shift, this remained unchanged.

At first it was my mother and grandmother; later, my mother-in-law and my daughter. Family stories, especially those involving women caught in political and social turmoil, are what interest me most. My mother retired the same year Albania’s political system changed, as did my mother-in-law. My older sister lost her job at that time and never re-entered the workforce; she “self-retired” at only 30 years old. Like her, over the years a generation of unemployed women emerged, who ended up cooking lunches at home and accompanying their children to school.

Through this touching drama, I intend to thoroughly explore the intricate web of relationships between three generations of women: Soni, her daughter Ema, and her mother-in-law Leta. Set in a rapidly changing Tirana, the film aims to capture the tension between tradition and modernity that defines much of today’s Albanian society.

Suela Bako

Suela Bako was born in Tirana. She graduated from the Acting Department at the Academy of Arts in 1999. After over 10 years of work experience in television, she completed her Master’s studies in Film and TV Directing at the University of Arts, graduating in 2014. Since that year, she has realized several short films and documentaries as director and screenwriter. Her works have been screened and appreciated at several important festivals such as the Documentary Film Festival in Thessaloniki, Film Festival in Krakow, Film Festival in Brussels, etc. Suela Bako debuted as a theater director in 2018. As an actress, she has several roles to her name and has been recognized with awards in film and theater. She is the winner of the Best Actress award at the Nashville Film Festival, USA 2017. For 10 years she has been a resident actress at the Aleksandër Moisiu Theater and since 2020 she has been an assistant lecturer in the Film and TV Directing department at the University of Arts. Suela Bako is co-founder of Z-Studio, Albanian Casting Agency, and she has been engaged as casting director in several productions. THE THREE OF US, her first feature film project as an author director, won the grand prize at DotOnTheMap, Cyprus Film Days, 2020.