Isufi, Fitore: Japan (Flag of Virginity) (2006)

Japan is among Koja’s (Fitore Isufi) earliest videos. The flag, waving calmly under an almost hypnotic melody of Leonard Cohen’s the well-known Hallelujah, derides a local tradition long out of practice in the urban areas, still existing, however, in rural Kosovo. It is about celebrating a woman’s virginity after her first marital night by exposing the couple’s white sheet stained with blood, an evidence of the female’s purity toward the family that will welcome her. The flag—metaphorically alluding to Japan’s flag through its iconography—questions the relevance of traditional customs in contemporary society. BK