Movie addresses persecuted foreign wives during communism

TIRANA, Feb.14- “The Scared Does” (Sorkadhet e trembura), a movie with a script based on Kadare’s 1985 book ‘The Death of a Russian Woman’ will address the interesting and tragic story of foreign women trapped in isolationist Albania during communism. The movie will be a cinematographic production by joint Russian, French and Albanian artists. The National Cinematographic Center of Albania confirmed through its head, Xhevdet Feri, that the movie will be ready soon. For this movie, the Internal Affairs Minister Nishani has made available secret files of the state archive with material and information on the investigation files of the Russian and other foreign wives in Albania. The movie production houses that will participate are “Albimage” (Albania), “Ton” (Russia) and “8 et plus” (France).
When Albania broke off relationships with the Soviet Union over claims that their communism was not geuine enough, a number of foreign women who were then married to Albanians they had met while as students abroad ,were suddenly trapped in a country that started to view them with skepticism, fear and hate. The women were limited in their communication possibilities, even to their families, and were often tried for espionage. The Albanian script is 150 pages and has already been translated into French by Artan Kotro and into Russian by Vasili Tyhin. The plot takes place in Moscow in the 1950s, the heart of the Soviet world where communist youth were educated to be part of the new generation. A young Albanian boy falls in love with a Russian girl.
This is the second time that cinema honors the particular memory of these women. Last year, the well-known documentary director from Bulgaria, Adela Peeva, dircted a feature in which she explored several stories like this and especially from eastern Albanian cities.