This second offering from Gjergj Xhuvani continues his chronicle of modern Albania. Xhuvani's debut feature, Slogans-the first Albanian film to premiere at Cannes-sarcastically detailed the inane effects of power struggles spawned by Cold War-era communist dogma on everyday people living in a tiny Albanian hamlet. Like Slogans, Dear Enemy is culled from a real-life scenario that falls into the truth-is-stranger (and sadder)-than-fiction camp. Toward the end of World War II, Harun, a merchant modeled after Xhuvani's grandfather, delicately conducts business with Nazi occupiers, while hiding an Albanian partisan, a wounded Italian soldier, and a Jewish watchmaker in his home. The pressing of enemies into close quarters leads to a comedy of manners, where petty but personal squabbles about the outside world remain trapped in the close confines of Harun's basement. The absurdity of taking sides is made clear and allegiances are eventually displaced in favor of day-to-day survival. In this way, Dear Enemy is made in the tradition of other Balkan favorites, cynical comedies that often give way to deeply felt meditations on dignity in the face of irrational suffering.