I Believe the Portrait Saved Me (Mua besoj më shpëtoj portreti)

2025

Film, 10 min

Twenty-five years after his abduction during the Kosovo War, painter Skender Muja recounts a story of extraordinary survival. In the tumultuous final months of the war, Muja and numerous Albanian citizens from Mitrovica were captured while fleeing Kosovo. Detained in a repurposed school-turned-detention center, they faced fear, confinement, and an uncertain fate.

Narrated by Muja, the film blends his reflections on the transformative power of art with reenactments of his experience. I Believe the Portrait Saved Me is a testament to resilience, illustrating how creativity can emerge as a tool of survival even in the most oppressive conditions.