Writer-director Steven Kastrissios has completed fantasy adventure feature Skybreaker, an Australian-Albanian co-production, following a multi-year post-production period driven by extensive visual effects work.
The English-language film follows Vlora, a young woman who embarks on a cosmic journey across modern Albania to rescue her lover from a ruthless witch.
Xhulia Musagalliu leads the cast, starring alongside Ina Gjonci as the villain, Romir Zalla as a quirky mountain wizard mentor and Igli Zarka, the Vloria’s Tori.
Fantasy marks a change of pace for Kastrissios, with previous work including 2008 revenge thriller The Horseman and 2017 supernatural horror Bloodlands.
“In Australia we filmmakers are told not to dream too big. A producer once said to me that we can’t do action here. Then I made The Horseman. So it would be unthinkable to make a fantasy film that’s ten times more ambitious, but it just comes down to how you approach the production and removing the fear of what is supposedly impossible,” he says.
Skybreaker his second film shot in Albania, reuniting him with producer Tan Kazazi, who was a co-producer on Bloodlands. It is a co-production between their companies, Kastrissios’ Kastle Films and Kazazi’s Black Box Films, financed via private investment. It is believed to be one of the first fantasy films made in Albania, where social dramas and comedies are cinema mainstays.
“I had a great experience on Bloodlands, which was a small experimental film, but after experiencing how open people were to collaborating, I planned to return for another production and bring a maximalist approach this time,” says Kastrissios
Kazazi adds: “Steven’s approach resonates deeply with mine — we focus on possibilities, not limitations and to find solutions through innovation and persistence. The industry often leans toward pessimism, but we choose a different path to create Albania’s first fantasy film.”
In addition to writing, directing and producing, Kastrissios also served as DOP, VFX supervisor and supervising sound editor. By utilising a small team, the production was able to stretch out for a longer production period and travel to more diverse locations across Albania, from the mountains to the ocean.
Finishing Skybreaker took around five years, with Kastrissios producing around 3,000 VFX shots he then whittled down to 1,000 for the final cut.
“This was the reverse of the industry standard but it was the right approach for us, as I wanted to shoot on location as freely as possible and then mould the fantasy world in post to seamlessly blend into our plate photography,” he says.
“The idea was that this would allow us to experiment, to look at a mountain range in the background and explore competing ideas. Maybe there’s a castle made of bones back there, or maybe a flock of prehistoric birdlife, elements that would build out the story. It was a method of the writer and the VFX artist working as one.
During the five years it has taken to complete Skybreaker, Kastrissios also developed and shot another feature, now in post, built a 5.1 studio in Italy, produced the short film The Dream Keeper, which won Best Fantasy Short at Night of Horror Film Festival, and was enlisted to restore two classic Albanian films for its national archive.
Skybreaker is looking to launch at festivals later in 2026.