TIRANA, Feb. 19 – “Tomka dhe Shoket e tij” (Tomka and his friends) is the second Albanian communist era movie that will undergo restoration in the United States as part of the Albanian Cinema Project dedicated to preserving, restoring and promoting Albanian film heritage.
“ACP is excited to report that work is just getting underway on our second feature film restoration in collaboration with Albanian Film Archive and the US Library of Congress Audiovisual Conservation Center,” project officials said in a statement.
Tomka and his friends is a 1977 Albanian drama film directed by Xhanfise Keko.
“Tomka and His Friends brings us into the story at the moment where the boys’ playing field has been taken over by the occupying German army in the south-central town of Berat, Albania circa 1943. The Library of Congress Audiovisual Conservation Center team will be working diligently to sharpen the image and sound, and create new film and digital restoration masters. Meanwhile, the ACP translation team will be working to create accurate subtitles.”
The Nentori i Dyte (Second November) movie, a 1982 production of Albania’s communist Kinostudio film studio, was the first movie to be restored by the Albanian Cinema Project.
On November 3, 2012, the restored N쯴ori i Dyt롯pened the “13th Festival of Albanian Film in the 100th Independence Year” at the Millenium Cinema in Tirana, Albania. This marked the world’s first restoration of an Albanian film and an international co-operation between filmmakers, film labs, archives, academics and activists to help preserve a film heritage that is in grave danger.
Three other movies to be restored
While Albania leaps into the 21st century, the Albanian Central State Film Archives remain shrouded in darkness. The Albanian Cinema Project is working overtime to bring Albania’s rich cinema history back into the light.
After the restoration of the Nentori i Dyte (Second November) movie, a 1982 production of Albania’s communist Kinostudio film studio, the Albanian Cinema Project is planning to restore four other movies of 1960s and 1970.
Balle per Balle/ Face to Face (Kujtim Cashku and Piro Milkani, 1979), Tomka dhe shok촠e tij / Tomka and His Friends (Xhanfise Keko, 1977), Kapedani / The Captain (Fehmi Hoshafi and Muharrem Fejzo, 1972), Ngadhnjm mbi vdekjen/Victory over Death (G컩m Erebara and Piro Milkani, 1967) are the other four movies scheduled for restoration.
The Albanian Cinema Project ACP believes the time is now to bring Albania’s film heritage to the world. As in the rest of the Balkans, Albania’s post-WWII narrative is of a communist partisan struggle against foreign occupation and, ultimately, of a communist takeover. Yet, Albania’s story is unique among Eastern European countries. Dictator Enver Hoxha’s schism first with Yugoslavia and later with the Soviet Union led him to proclaim that the Albanian version of Marxist-Leninism was the only true path to communism. Practicing a strenuous form of Stalinism for nearly 50 years, Albania denounced most Eastern European socialist countries as revisionists, and maintained a strict observance of Hoxha’s own brand of socialist realism. Albanian communists determined that the self-isolation of their country was the only way to implement their puritan brand of state socialism.
As a result, foreign influence on Albanian cinema was limited to minute cracks in the thick curtain that separated Albania from the rest of the world. Television broadcasts from neighboring countries (especially from Italy), or rare personal journeys of foreign film professionals to the country were the only moments of rupture. The almost complete reliance on socialist realism in filmmaking during communism has caused many Albanians to reject their own cinematic history. More than twenty years have passed since the fall of Hoxha’s regime, yet there is still much resistance to a re-examination of Albania’s state sponsored film productions. For this reason, many have languished in inadequate vaults and are now in danger of being lost forever.
The Albanian Cinema Project’s ultimate goal is to build a new archives and exhibition space in Tirana, Albania. To achieve this, it has partnered with film preservation laboratories and film festivals throughout the world to preserve 5 Albanian films in 5 years. Each title will screen first at film festivals, with ACP’s partnering institutions and then to the larger public.
