'But in parts of Albania, people have always viewed the Kanun as a form of self-government.They prefer their own laws rather than those of outsiders.'. 'For every 10 children we auditioned, roughly one or two had some family members involved in a blood feud,' he says, pointing out of the car window to a red-tiled house on the side of the road where a family has been in isolation for three years. The Albanian government has taken steps to curb blood feuds, imposing severe penalties for retaliations, and funding the 'Second Chance' schooling programme, where children who are in isolation get home tuition.The five boys in the Morevataj clan have a governess who visits three times per week, and have made good progress. Just as his earlier film chronicled the horrors of life as a drug mule, his latest work aims to strip away the romantic myths about honour and revenge and show the real-life impact that blood feuds have on ordinary families. The origins of the Kanun, he explains, go back to the 1400s, when a northern Albanian prince called Lekë Dukagjini laid down a set of word of mouth laws to help the area's quarrelsome mountain clans get along peacefully. But it continued to run parallel to state rule, governing everything from the economic organisation of households to notions of honour. A wizened, grey face in the corner, clad in a traditional all-black shawl and scarf, nods in assent. His wife, Valentina, married him at a time when most other Albanian women would have refused. His younger sister, Drenica, was a little luckier.

Eighty-three-year-old Nikoll Marku has a sunken face and bright blue eyes. The government, which formally applied for EU membership last year, and which wants to project a modern image to EU bureaucrats, insists such figures are exaggerated. 1997: Economic crisis caused by pyramid schemes led to widespread social disorder. My children know they have to keep an eye when walking around in the streets. Not to do so would be to look weak in front of the neighbours, who, as with the chance remark that saw Pëllumb Morevataj reach for his gun, might still be gossiping about it 50 years later. If he was really set on revenge, he should only have killed an adult male. Shkurte shakes her head. Police arrest feud participants and investigate feud murders, bringing culprits to … Police arrest feud participants and investigate feud murders, bringing culprits to court.

Yet he considers himself more than qualified for the task. 'It is both a gender reversal and a coming of age movie - the girl learns how to become a business operator and comes into her own,' says Marston. Her husband lives in hiding – allowed out only for an hour every now and again as a result of an agreement with the injured party that grants him temporary freedom. In 2009, what he describes as a “quarrel” with another family led him to accrue a further “blood debt”. It is that experience that has inspired him to help others in a similar position. Latest news on cruise lines and holidays, Man arrested after woman's body discovered on National Trust estate. Now back in Albania, the 19-year-old spends most of his day laying on a bed that is too small for his more than six-foot frame. But as Albania transitioned from communism, a frail state and widespread judicial corruption saw more people turn to the kanun and its most extreme interpretations. "We have intensively investigated cases of possible murders as the result of blood feuds," he said. Marston's film focuses on Mark, a village bread-delivery man whose rounds are interrupted one day when a neighbour, Sokol, blocks a shortcut through a field. I think the state law enforcement authorities should do more and that they are not working properly.". Shpetim was mentally ill, but that has not excused the victims' relatives from seeking retribution against Samir: as an adult of sound mind, he is actually deemed a better prize than his brother. "Blood feud, this unique phenomenon in Europe, is the most absurd behavior of a civilized society," Halimi said in a recent Facebook post. “Increasing penalties is not enough. However, it is for its authorisation of retaliation killings that it has become most notorious, particularly since enjoying a revival in the years following the fall of communism. “Women and children are not to be shot,” explains Luigj Mila, the chairman of the Law and Peace Committee. The blood feud involving Niko's family began shortly after the deep economic crisis in Albania caused by the collapse of so-called pyramid selling schemes. Niko is said to be "in blood", in other words, under threat of death for supposed "crimes" committed before he was even born. 'Life could not be worse - it would almost be better to be in jail myself.'.

But in the anarchy of the early Nineties, its influence quickly re-emerged, as did countless old grievances that had lain dormant in the Hoxha era, particularly over land that was 'redistributed' during the socialist period. 'I thought he would be aggressive,' says Tristan. But nowadays neither the Kanun nor the laws of the state are being followed," she explained. Here are some of its more extraordinary 'commandments': 'As soon as a murderer has killed someone, he must inform the family of the victim, in order that there should be no confusion regarding his identity', 'The murderer may move around at night, but at the first light of day he must conceal himself', 'He who decides to ambush must take sufficient food with him to provide for his accomplices', 'An ambusher must fire his gun at men, and not at women, children, livestock, or a house', 'The murderer may not dare to take the victim's weapon. Today's blood feuds, though, can erupt over far more minor things than property or grazing rights: a chance drunken insult, for example, or a glance that lingers on another man's wife too long. 'If only the Kanun was interpreted right, we would have had the forgiveness of the other family. However, Refet Abazi, the professional actor who plays the father, Mark, is in no doubt about the sorrow that blood feuds cause. 'The entire village agreed it was an accident, and my nephew was jailed for three months anyway, but the other boy's family do not forgive us,' says Deliaj, sipping brandy in the family's new home in a shabby township on the outskirts of Tirana. Oral laws governing the blood feud go as far back as the Bronze Age. US scientists find country’s first ‘murder hornet’ nest, Malaysia rulers to meet amid talk of emergency declaration, Nigeria says 51 civilians, 18 security forces killed in unrest, Erdogan defends testing Russian S-400, shrugs off US criticism, Al Jazeera Centre for Public Liberties & Human Rights. Documents originating from the Albanian courts, police or prosecution Kanun dates to the late 15th Century. Yet here in Albania, there is an aspect to such feuds that make them unique - namely, that both sides in the feud claim to be acting entirely within the law.

.css-8h1dth-Link{font-family:ReithSans,Helvetica,Arial,freesans,sans-serif;font-weight:700;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;color:#FFFFFF;}.css-8h1dth-Link:hover,.css-8h1dth-Link:focus{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;}Read about our approach to external linking.

'My father decided we couldn't take the law into our own hands,' Abazi says.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. "If they follow the rules of Kanun... they would not kill children and women. "It has happened that there have been women killed and children killed. “The kanun rules call for reconciliation,” he adds, criticising its misrepresentation. She was able to leave the house to attend school.

'He said that if justice couldn't be delivered by ourselves, or by the state, God would deliver it instead.' .css-14iz86j-BoldText{font-weight:bold;}It is said that revenge is a dish best served cold and in Albania it can be served very cold indeed. He was just six years old when his father’s life was claimed in 2001 and has seldom left his home since. 'The most complicated cases are where the family of the killer shows no tact or there is pressure from the community on the victim's family to act,' says Marku. Colonel Gjovalin Loka, the police chief for the Shkodra region, said he was doing all he could to prevent and investigate blood feuds.

And not even the law can help them.

Palm oil peril: Is your peanut butter putting primates at risk? 'What I found interesting was the way this ancient tradition still existed in a modern country,' says Marston, 41, as he drove to a shoot at a farmstead in the mountain-flanked plains outside the northern town of Shkoder. It is a terrible life, not being able to move around at all.'. First the Ottomans and then Albania’s communist dictator Enver Hoxha sought to outlaw it.