Several Serbian-language media outlets published articles a few days ago (July 21) claiming that a film is being created with Hollywood actors to incite hatred against Serbs, with millions of dollars in funding from Prime Minister Albin Kurti.
Serbian media outlet "Alo.rs" has published an article titled "THEY TOOK MILLIONS FROM KURT TO REPRESENT US AS CRIMINALS Hollywood actors about to retire in the propaganda film "Me and Milosevic", which is being shot in Kosovo."
The article is about a Kosovar film that is in the making, titled "Me and Milosevic", written and directed by Arben Kastrati. The cast of this film also includes world-famous actors such as William Baldwin and Maria Grazia Cucinota.
But, these Serbian media outlets intend to present this film as a propaganda project, financed by Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti. This claim made by the author of the article published in “Alo.rs” and in several other Serbian-language media outlets, is not based on facts. On the contrary, it contradicts the facts presented by Kastrati.
Apart from the title, the article does not at any time claim that the finances for this film were provided by Kurti.
Parts of the article published on "Alo.rs" translated into Albanian:
According to information received by Alo! from an interlocutor in Pristina, it is true that the real budget of the film is much higher than the official one.
Now, whether it is a classic tax evasion or an intention to hide the real source of financing, which is a more realistic option for me, no one can say for sure. It's just that here in Kosovo there is a lot of money from the criminal underworld and it is not impossible that this film is, in fact, financed by drug lords, arms dealers and the like – explains our interlocutor.
Link to the article published on "Alo.rs":
As a fact for this, the author of the article uses a source for which he does not provide information about where it comes from or what it represents. But, even in citing this source, it is not stated with certainty that the film is financed by, as claimed in the title, Kurti.
Even the claim made by this source, as can be seen above, does not fulfill the paraphrase made by the author, which states that "the real budget is higher than the official one."
Like this medium, articles with similar titles have been published by several other Serbian-language media outlets (see here, here and here).
These claims are denied by the main man of this film project, Arben Kastrati. He says that the current budget of 3.8 million euros, has been secured from various supports. Kastrati also says that he has not received any support from relevant institutions, which denies that the support was provided by Prime Minister Kurti. (See the video of the interview given to “Euronews Albania", min. 2:26)
Analyze:
The claims made by Serbian media that the film “Me and Milosevic” was financed by Kurti and criminal groups in Kosovo are not supported by any facts. Moreover, this is denied by the creator of this project, Arben Kastrati, who confirms that there is no support from Kosovo institutions.
For this reason, hibrid.info evaluates these claims as "Fake News".
Reasoning:
The "Fake News" rating is given to media reports that are entirely the product of a medium that itself contains factually incorrect claims or information.
Content that is considered fake news can be reliably determined to have been created and distributed with the intent to misinform the public, i.e., to present a claim that is completely false as fact.