TIRANA, Feb 25 – A contractual disagreement between the Marubi Film Academy and the public company AlbaFilm turned violent this week. Police raided the film school and its chief, production head and three students were detained.
Marubi Film and Multi-Media Academy has been clashing with police following a property dispute on the offices it uses and which the government declines to let free to the academy.
Kujtim Cashku, the film school’s rector, was taken into custody along with director of productions Eol Cashku and three students in violent protests when police started to destroy a number of open air art installations ranged around a large cinema screen erected outside the academy.
The dispute with Culture Minister Ylli Pango has been continuing for years and it culminated last weekend when the government asked a considerable amount of money as rent to be paid by the academy, a move that would practically take the private company into bankruptcy.
The Ministry of Economy said they were asking the Academy to pay the rent for its offices, which it said were illegally used, adding they had given only 200 square meters that had later increased from the academy itself into some 1,800 square meters as offices.
The academy claims that the government should come to a decision to give the space for free since it is the only cultural institution in that field.
The academy has been sponsored from US, France, Germany and Britain when it was launched three years ago. Film school staff and students claim the government wants to flatten a sculpture park to make way for a car park for use by an Albanian television channel.
“State police forces came to close our film academy under the pretext that we are illegally using part of our premises in the ex-Kinostudio,” the school said in a statement posted on its website. “This use of force is a violation of the Albanian constitution, education law and civic procedures.” The Marubi academy remains as of now, still surrounded by police. The students and the professors are still on the premises continuing the strike. “We intend to resist through it all, in order to keep alive the first and the only Academy of Film in Albania.”
“I call on the authorities, people who are able to find formulas that lead to tense situations and students to remain calm,” said ȡshku. “The police were damaging a big investment. Kinoteatri was damaged; trees and the large screen where we were to start the festival were damaged. All this happened while the students were giving exams.”
He said that a sacred institution like the academy should not be harmed and that the government should find solutions to the problem instead of creating tension.
The academy also holds a regular annual International Human Rights Film Festival that has been scheduled for March.
The school has also initiated an online petition for support which will be addressed to Albanian President Bamir Topi calling for an end to police actions, immediate legalization of the film school premises and the resignation of the “Minister of ‘anti-culture’ Ylli Pango, who dares to equate culture and art to business,” the petition states.
Bernd Buder, a Berlin-based freelance film program curator and festival consultant, and one of more than 800 people who have signed the online petition, said: “The Marubi film school does a very good job to skill a young generation of filmmakers, to establish international contacts and so to force the integration of Albania into the European context. The extraordinary efforts made by this school, its director Kujtim Cashku, its teachers and students, should get full support.”
The Albanian ministry of culture has simply said they want the school to pay its rent, not continuing whether they are to sign a formal contract for the used space as required.
Executive Secretary Henry Verhasselt of CILECT, a non-governmental association in operational relations with UNESCO, sent a letter to Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha expressing its “concern about the evacuation of the premises of the Film and Multimedia Academy “Marubi”. CILECT, founded in 1954, is the world organization of major film schools with 142 members from more than 50 nations.
He wrote that “the training of film and multi media personnel is an investment in the near-term and long-term future, because of the economic benefits that flow from these industries in the 21st century. Perhaps even more important is the cultural imperative.
We urge that Albania retain the facility of the Film and Multimedia Academy “Marubi”, which is a highly significant school in south-eastern Europe’s film and multimedia education.”
Marubi Film & Multimedia School is the first non public superior institution for film and television education, formation and training in Albania, with students from Kosovo, Montenegro as well. It offers professional, artistic and technical qualifications for aspiring cineastes and collaborates with famous western cinematographic associations such as CILECT, GEECT and SEEC. For five years now Marubi has organized regular weekly screenings from foreign and Albanian cinema. It holds different events such as Spanish, German, Italian movie week, the International Human Rights Film Festival Albania, Tirana Film Festival etc.
Kujtim Cashku
Kujtim ȡshku started his career in 1975 as an assistant director after studying at the Institute of Theater and Film and Art in Bucharest. Before that, Cashku had studied at the Higher Institute of Arts in Tirana. ȡshku has worked in France, Poland and Germany and he is probably the best known Albanian filmmaker abroad for directing the 1990 romantic drama film “Balada e Kurbinit”.
In 1996 he wrote and directed “Kolonel Bunker” (Drama), an official Albanian selection for the Academy Awards in 1996 as well as a winner of several International Prizes worldwide, including the prestigious CIFT ETC Enrico Fulghinoni in Venice 1998. His biggest international success came with Magic Eye 2005 (Road Drama), which won 9 international Prices such as FIPRESCI 2005, Silver Pyramid, Best Screen Play, and Best Actor in Cairo IFF 2005, Bronx Palm, and Best Cinematography, Best Music in Mostra Valencia 2006 and CEI Award, and Third Best Film Audience Award in Trieste IFF 2007. He is the founder and principle of the Marubi Film & Multimedia School in Tirana the first university of film ever in Albania and founder of the first International Human Rights Film Festival Albania www.ihrffa.net.
