Hana is raised in a remote village in Albania, where being female means living under the guardianship of a man, without any freedom or hope. To escape this prison, she decides to bow to an ancestral tradition: she vows to remain a virgin forever and live as a man. Now Hana is Mark, trying to find her place in the world, far from her remote village, even though it gradually appropriates her sexuality.

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Sworn Virgin brings across at least one thing: Alba Rohrwacher is an amazing actress. Renowned for An Italian Romance, The Solitude of Prime Numbers and The Wonders, Rohrwacher began her international career with Tale of Tales and Hungry Hearts. She embodies a strength that is both clear and strange in this unusual story of thwarted femininity and sexual awakening far from the beaten track. Her androgynous body and quiet seriousness contribute significantly to the atmosphere of Laura Bispuri’s movie, which was adapted from the novel by Albanian writer Elvira Dones. Because it questions the sexual identity of its lead character without serving up a moral lesson, Sworn Virgin is convincing.