Casa del Cinema shows the real face of contemporary Albania
TIRANA, May 29 – Albanian film is taking centre stage in the Italian capital, with ”Albania and Its Films” to be held June 2-5 in Rome’s Casa del Cinema. The initiative aims to show Albanian culture and society to the Italian public, according to the non-profit association Occhio Blu-Anna Cenerini Bova, promoter of the event.
”Films provide us with two invaluable opportunities: first, the appreciation of one of the most effective artistic-cultural expressions of a population which has long been ignored in Italy, with Albanian films having achieved surprising heights of excellence, in part due to a deeply-rooted, historical steeping of values.” The association notes that, secondly, it also enables us to ”go beyond the secrets of a country which has suffered greatly over its hundred years of independence, in its turbulent path towards the ideals of freedom, democracy, and collective and individual dignity.” Several issues are dealt with by the films to be screened: from a denunciation of Hoxha’s communism, to an analysis of the social tragedy of emigration and the deeply-seated tensions of a contradictory modernisation, issues which help to draw the contours of the true face of modern Albania.
