Luàna Bajrami

Luàna Bajrami
Bajrami at the premiere of School's Out
Born	(2001-03-14) 14 March 2001 (age 23)
Nationality	French
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2011–present

Luàna Bajrami-Rahmani (French: [lwana baʒʁami];^[1] born 14 March 2001)^[2] is a French actress. She is known for her roles in the films Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) and School's Out (2018). She made her directorial debut with The Hill Where Lionesses Roar (2020).

Early life

Bajrami's family is from Pleshina, a village in the Ferizaj District of Kosovo. When she was seven, the family moved to Créteil, just south of Paris.^[3] She first became interested in acting after watching Nicolas Bary's 2008 adaption of Trouble at Timpetill, based on the novel by Henry Winterfeld.^[4]

Career

Bajrami's first role was in the 2011 television film Adèle's Choice by Olivier Guignard, where she played an 8-year-old Albanian student whose family was threatened with expulsion.^[5] This student finds support from her teacher, played by Miou-Miou. Bajrami had a small role in the 2014 short film 14 Million Screams by Lisa Azuelos. She played the title role in the TV film Marion by Bourlem Guerdjou. Marion was adapted from the eponymous book by Nora Fraisse retracing the Marion Fraisse affair in which a schoolgirl committed suicide following harassment by her fellow students, and first aired France 3 on 27 September 2016.^[6] In an interview with Le Monde, Bajrami reflected that this was the first role in which she felt creative control. She read the book and met with the mother of Marion Fraisse.^[7]

Bajrami starred in two more short films: Two Youths Died by Tomasso Usberti, which won third prize from the Cinéfondation at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017, and the 2018 film After the Night by Valentin Plisson and Maxime Roux.

She played the role of Apolline, the ringleader of a group of six intellectually gifted students facing off against their substitute teacher (played by Laurent Lafitte) in Sébastien Marnier's 2019 film School's Out, adapted from the eponymous novel by Christophe Dufossé.^[8] She was praised for her portrayal of Apolline, with EJ Oakley of The Panoptic stating that "Luana Bajrami is particularly menacing as the verbose and morose Apolline".^[9]

Bajrami was praised for her portrayal of Sophie in the 2019 independent French film Portrait of a Lady on Fire. That same year, she played the role of Emma in Cedric Khan's Happy Birthday, which focused on a dysfunctional family reunion.^[10][11]

In 2020, it was announced that Bajrami was making her directorial debut with the film The Hill Where Lionesses Roar.^[12] Bajrami was nominated for "Most Promising Actress" at the 2020 César Awards.^[13]

Filmography

Films

List of films featuring Bajrami

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2011	Adèle's Choice	Kaniousha
2014	14 Million Screams	Louise	Short film
2016	Marion, 13 Years Old Forever	Marion
2017	Two Youths Died	Vera	Short film
2018	After the Night	Anastasia
	School's Out	Apolline
2019	Happy Birthday	Emma
	Portrait of a Lady on Fire	Sophie
2020	The Hill Where Lionesses Roar	Lena	Director, writer
2021	Happening	Hélène
2023	A Difficult Year (Une année difficile)	Antilope

Television

List of television series featuring Bajrami

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2011	Vivement dimanche prochain	Herself
2018	War on Beasts	Nadia
2019	Quotidien	Herself
	Sous la peau	Léa Bourdouin	TV mini-series

References

1. "Luana Bajrami Paroles de Révélations 2020". Académie des César. 11 January 2020. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
2. AlloCine. "Luàna Bajrami". AlloCiné. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
3. "Luana e vogël, artiste e madhe në Paris". Zëri (in Albanian). 12 August 2016. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
4. "Luàna Bajrami, des débuts prometteurs au cinéma". Le Monde.fr (in French). 4 September 2019. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
5. "Luàna Bajrami, des débuts prometteurs au cinéma". Le Monde.fr (in French). 4 September 2019. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
6. Telestar.fr (27 September 2016). "Marion, 13 ans pour toujours, France 3 : que devient Nora Frai... - Télé Star". www.telestar.fr (in French). Retrieved 28 January 2020.
7. "Luàna Bajrami, des débuts prometteurs au cinéma". Le Monde.fr (in French). 4 September 2019. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
8. "'School's Out' ('L'heure de la sortie'): Film Review | Venice 2018". The Hollywood Reporter. 31 August 2018. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
9. "London Film Festival 2018: School's Out". The Panoptic. 27 September 2018. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
10. Lépine, Cédric. "La famille décousue selon Cédric Kahn". Club de Mediapart (in French). Retrieved 28 January 2020.
11. "'Happy Birthday' ('Fete de famille'): Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. 7 October 2019. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
12. Goodfellow, Melanie; Blaney, Martin; Macnab, Geoffrey; Niola, Gabriele; Cabeza, Elisabet; Mitchell2020-01-10T08:46:00+00:00, Wendy. "42 European films to tempt festival directors in 2020". Screen. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
13. "César 2020 : Lyna Khoudri et Anthony Bajon parmi les révélations". Premiere.fr (in French). 13 November 2019. Retrieved 29 January 2020.

External links

• Luàna Bajrami at IMDb