The Visa
aka
The Albanian Librarian
A Football Match... an International Incident... an Accidental Romance
Log-Line
An immigration paralegal and a displaced tourist team up as an unlikely couple in a daring test of the law that will either transform their lives or get them respectively disbarred and deported.
Story Synopsis
Ailsa is Scottish - she’s a paralegal in her Glasgow law firm’s immigration department. Artur is Albanian - away from his real life back home as a librarian, he presently finds himself as a night-time cleaner in Aisla’s office block. When their lives collide, an unlikely friendship is forged.
Moved by his predicament as a jeopardy-ridden tourist who cannot return home, Ailsa hatches an ingenious but wrong-side-of-legal plan to help Artur get a precious Visa. Artur's role in this quid-pro-quo is simple... he merely has to get Ailsa pregnant! The illicit collaborators become embroiled in the process of artificial conception... Artur is stocked up with syringes and sterile cups, while Ailsa is up to her elbows in ovulation and pregnancy testing kits. Through both her job and Artur, Ailsa becomes immersed in the plight of would-be immigrants and their fight against the asylum system.
Emotions see-saw as Ailsa juggles domestic expediency with professional ethics; while Artur struggles to evade detection as an illegal worker. Despite the cultural divide, the mismatched pair begin to sense there may be more to their alliance than mere procreation... but their budding romance is just one positive pregnancy test away from being over.
The Story (as played out)
The film begins in 1979 in Albania - during the period of the Communist regime under Hoxha... a time when, fearing the influence of ‘Western decadence’, restrictions on life included the banning of flared trousers, long hair and beards!
It’s September 19th in a bar in Tirana - a TV screen is broadcasting a football match from the Qemal Stafa Stadium - it’s Partizan Tirana v Glasgow Celtic, European Cup, 1st round, 1st leg - a match of huge importance to both teams.
The Albanian men in the bar stare nervously at the TV screen - all the men are clearly clean-shaven. As the broadcast pans round the full stadium of 30,000 eager fans, the commentator wonders if the Celtic captain, Danny McGrain, has respected the country’s laws and shaved off his beard.
As the players walk onto the pitch, we see Danny McGrain wearing his full beard! The Albanian men the bar cheer! They see the beard as a defiant gesture against the hated regime, and Danny McGrain has become an instant hero figure!
The Celtic players nervously look at McGrain, and wonder if he’ll be ejected from the match...
or even be detained by the authorities.
[This opening segment is factual - see this Guardian piece]
The Partizan Tirana players line up.
From the Mood-Board visuals
We cut to 45 years later. We’re in Glasgow, Scotland. A young Albanian man, Artur Koçi, a librarian from Shkoder, is nearing the end of his Glasgow vacation - he reflects on his time in the city as he sits in a Starbucks. He tells us he has done what he came here to do - he has met the man he came here to meet - now he can go home happy.
In the Starbucks, Artur finds himself sitting next to a young Scottish woman, Ailsa Salcoats. Ailsa, a lonely singleton desperate for a baby and motherhood, tells us she’s just returned from another visit to a sperm bank where, again, she’s been unwilling to go through with an anonymous sperm donation.
Ailsa and Artur strike up a brief, polite conversation of small talk. He tells her he’s going back to Albania tomorrow.
—-------------------------------------
It’s a month later, and Ailsa is working late at her desk at a Glasgow law firm - as the firm’s indispensable paralegal, she’s just been transferred to help out at the firm’s immigration office. It’s time to go home - Ailsa waits at the elevator - she sees a cleaner mopping up the floor from a leakage in the gents toilet - she recognises the cleaner as Artur!, looking very different from the well-groomed holiday-maker she met at Starbucks. Artur stops his mopping - he also recognises Ailsa. Ailsa is confused as to Artur’s apparent double life and, sensing he’s a man in difficulty, tells him that maybe she and her law firm can help. Artur declines help - he gets back to his cleaning shift - Ailsa goes home.
Back in his tiny, horrible, dirty rented Glasgow flat, it’s obvious that Artur is now a man in distress as he contemplates his lot.
Regretting his declining of Ailsa’s assistance, Artur now finds himself in her office. He needs help! Artur wants to tell Ailsa the story of why he’s still here - he tells Ailsa he’s not a night-time cleaner - he’s actually a librarian at the university back home - he’s here on a 180-day tourist visa - but the day he was to leave he received word from home... fate has shown its hand... he has been caught up in a Kanun... a decades-old inter-family dispute in which his father was to be killed, but his father recently died, and blood must be spilled. Artur is now the innocent bystander in this archaic situation. Rather than return home to face very probable death, Artur needs to stay in the relative safety of Glasgow.
But, as Ailsa tells Artur, he has no grounds on which to apply for a settled status visa. Ailsa explains that the UK Home Office no longer regards the Kanun as valid reason to claim asylum. Artur realises that he’s a dead man walking, and Ailsa, as an immigration paralegal, feels impotent in not being able to help.
Then, Ailsa witnesses a consultation in her office that changes everything - a failed asylum-seeker who was facing deportation is going to have a child with a Scottish woman, so he’s now entitled to residency via Article 9 of the Human Rights Act, ie: the ‘right to a family life’.
Nik Xheliliaj - attached as ‘Pavlo’
For Ailsa, this is light-bulb moment! Her mind in overdrive, she waits for Artur’s cleaning shift to start - she confronts him - she pitches her plan - if she and Artur have a baby together, she gets the baby she craves, and Artur gets his discretionary visa - it’s a quid-pro-quo - Artur’s part in the plan is obvious... he ‘simply’ has to get Ailsa pregnant! - and they’ve got 140 days to get a result.
Artur is dumbfounded by this strange, highly irregular plan. But his options are limited - thus - Ailsa & Artur embark on the journey of conception through artificial insemination - Ailsa stocks up on ovulation & pregnancy testing kits and plastic cups & syringes - Artur stocks up on ‘visual stimulation’.
Over the weeks and months, Ailsa & Artur settle into a routine in Ailsa’s comfortable flat, each having their ‘private time’ in Ailsa’s bathroom. Artur becomes enthused at the prospect of gaining his visa, the added ‘bonus’ of fatherhood keeping him going. He and Ailsa’s moods however become dented with every monthly negative pregnancy test.
Ailsa however, starts to have her misgivings. Her plan always came with questionable ethics, but now her law firm has hired an Ethics & Compliance Officer - if she’s caught trying to have a baby with a client it’d mean the end of her career!
Ailsa realises her plan is too dangerous for both her and Pavlo - she calls a halt to the proceedings. Artur is devastated - once again he is a man in limbo.
Sophie Kennedy Clark - attached as 'Ailsa'
However, it doesn’t take long for Ailsa to realise that loneliness & limbo go hand in hand. And besides, she also realises that she misses Artur in her life - their friendship has gone beyond mere procreation. She confronts him again in the middle of his cleaning shift.
The plan is back on, but their closeness has evolved into a relationship. Artur moves in to live with Ailsa - they are now co-habiting. Plus, artificial insemination is now inappropriate - they are having sex, and what with Artur’s rapidly expiring tourist visa and Ailsa’s rapidly ticking body clock, they’re having it as often as they can!
But something has been troubling Ailsa - there’s something about Artur that’s been nagging at her mind - it’s time to confront him. Ailsa suspects that Artur did not come to Glasgow all those months ago as a mere holiday-maker tourist - and now Artur realises he must tell Aisla the real reason. Artur explains... his father was once a football player - he played for Partizan Tirana - 45 years ago, during the Communist years when beards were banned, there was a famous match, Partizan v Celtic - Artur’s father was on the bench as a substitute - his world changed the moment he saw Danny McGrain walk onto the pitch, wearing his beard. Along
with many in the country, he looked at McGrain as a defiant hero - after the match, all he wanted to do was exchange match shirts with McGrain - but he never got the chance. It became Artur’s father’s life-long ambition to finally exchange shirts - but his father recently died. So, some months ago Artur, in order to honour his father, felt it was his duty do deliver his father’s match shirt to Danny McGrain - which he did, on the last day of his trip, just before finding out he was a target of the Kanun.
Ailsa’s pregnancy tests continue to be negative - all she & Artur dream of is a sign... nausea, tender breasts, morning sickness... anything!
Panic sets in as they realise Artur’s tourist visa has expired! Artur is now officially an over-stayer - he has no grounds to be in the UK. If they were playing a dangerous game before, now it’s even more dangerous - Artur could be looking at deportation!
And then, the unthinkable happens - Artur is apprehended. His hearing could go either way... prison being the worst outcome. But the home office official had seen a picture in the newspapers from some months ago... in a Glasgow hotel - Artur Koçi with his arm round the now aging Danny McGrain - both hold up the old Partizan Tirana match shirt that his father wore. The official goes easy on Artur, offering that if Artur remove himself from the UK immediately, no more will be said. Artur agrees. Both he and Ailsa are heartbroken. They wonder if and when Artur will be allowed back into the country.
It’s the night of Artur’s departure - he and Ailsa wait in a Glasgow bus station for his bus to the airport. The time has come - the bus is about to depart. Through the bus window, Artur & Ailsa say their loving goodbyes - Ailsa asks Artur if he’ll be ok... he tells her he’ll make sure he is difficult to find - Artur asks Ailsa if she’ll be ok... she tells him her breasts feel tender and that she’s got morning sickness and nausea. As the bus pulls off, Artur realises what Ailsa has really said. He looks out the bus window, but she’s gone. Artur smiles to himself.
Screenplay, Michael Normand
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Coverage
'The script has truly enthralling character arcs and backstories and would make a fascinating indie drama if given the chance to shine' - The Black List
‘In terms of originality, the narrative does have some tonal similarities to films such as “Green Card", but 'The Visa' does its own take' - Slated
'The Visa' is a highly original black comedy with a social conscience and a huge heart' -
Industrial Scripts
'A strong premise & concept for a romantic dramedy - it fuses lovable odd-couple sensibilities with a commentary on relevant contemporary themes such as illegal immigration' - Slated
'The Visa is positioned to be a hilarious, thoughtful, and heartwarming addition to the romantic comedy and dramedy genres' - Slated
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Comparables
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