Vitor Leka — Screenwriter for Action & True Stories

Logline

Four childhood friends from very different backgrounds reunite in post-democracy Albania and make a dangerous pact: become rich or die trying. What begins as an ambition to change their lives soon becomes a violent criminal empire, drawing them into murder, drug trafficking and a web of police and political corruption that ultimately turns against them.

Synopsis

Eagles in the Blood is an action crime drama inspired by true stories, following four childhood friends—Victor, Alfred, Lony and Mark—whose lives take very different paths before bringing them together again in Albania. The four boys grow up together despite coming from very different family backgrounds. Victor is the son of a senior police officer and a doctor, Alfred's father is a mechanic, while Lony and Mark leave Albania with their families, eventually living in Italy and Germany. Years later, circumstances bring the four friends back together in Albania. Older and more ambitious, they decide to change their lives and make a pact: rich or dead—they have nothing to lose. Their ambition quickly turns into a life of organised crime. Robberies, weapons and murder lead them into an increasingly powerful criminal network. Victor's connection to his father and elements within the police gives the group access to information and protection, allowing their activities to grow while investigations are manipulated and evidence disappears. Their network eventually expands into international drug trafficking, involving contacts across several countries. As their wealth and influence grow, so does their relationship with corrupt elements within the police, political structures and the justice system. But the protection they once relied upon begins to disappear. Political pressure increases, investigations intensify and the authorities can no longer afford to protect the group. Meanwhile, Mark's relationship with his girlfriend begins to deteriorate. Once close to him, she becomes frightened as she discovers more about the criminal world surrounding him. Her eventual connection with an honest police officer sets in motion a chain of events that exposes the group's crimes. The four friends are eventually hunted by the authorities. Their final attempts to escape end in a series of violent confrontations, leaving the childhood friends dead and those closest to them devastated. Eagles in the Blood explores friendship, ambition, loyalty, corruption, betrayal and the devastating consequences of believing that money and power can place someone above the law.