"I am a BURNESHA. The last sworn virgins of Albania."
Patriarchal times in northern Albania gave birth to a phenomenon - the replacement of the male head of the family by a woman. These are masculine times in which the woman only takes care of the household and raises the children. But, locked in these social roles, girls emerge ready to abandon their female identity and follow the path of honor. They want to be respectable women with the power of a man, not for themselves, but for others. They give up marriage and sexual relations. They choose to live as men. The fall of the regime opened the country to the modern world, but neither communism nor the emerging democracy succeeded in changing the age-old traditions in the more isolated mountainous regions of Albania.
In the Cursed Mountains, to the north, the last sworn virgins in Europe live a man's life today.
Author: Radiana Bozhikova
Reporter: Radiana Bozhikova
Cameraman: Dobromir Ivanov
Voiceover: Vasil Binev
Editor: Alexandra Tabakova
Graphic Design: Vitaly Varadinov
Producer: Vesselina Petrakieva
Dance: Petia Bozhinova
Music: "Ajo"
