After losing their livelihood following a dispute with their relatives, a family is forced to move from their farm in rural Kosovo to the capital city. As in pursuit of a place in a hyper-capitalist society, a proud man struggles to provide as financial pressures mount in Director Visar Morina’s drama from Germany, Shame and Money.

Morina’s film won the World Cinema - Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival and on  April 15, after the Special Projects Committee Global Cinema Series screening in Los Angeles and via video from London, he discussed the making of Shame and Money during a Q&A moderated by Special Projects Committee member Valerie Weiss.

During the conversation, Morina revealed his approach in guiding his novice actors to a place where they could give him the performances he was seeking.

“I knew I will have people in the cast that are not so experienced and have to find ways with them to get to certain moments. Sometimes I made scenes longer just to give them some way to walk until they get into the mood. I was more interested in capturing something than making it look good or beautiful. The idea was that the camera shouldn’t feel so obvious, and it should focus more on the performance. The dinner scene is the first thing I wrote before I knew how the film will go, and I knew that it will be very important. This is actually the moment where the family falls apart. We did rehearse like three days. It was a good scene to get the actors into the mood and the way we are working.”

Morina’s other directorial credits include the features Father and the 2020 Sundance Film Festival World Cinema - Dramatic Grand Jury Prize nominated Exile; as well as the short films Of Dogs and Wallpaper and Death by Suffocation.