By: ALBANA BALI KARAKUSHI
When two weeks ago I heard that Bekim Fehmiu had died I felt as though someone I knew personally had left us. The news was brief and it seemed to lack the deserved attention that such a void would create for all those who loved his acting. What made this news even more painful was finding out that he committed suicide.
Bekim Fehmiu was born on June 1, 1936 in Sarajevo to an Albanian family. He began his acting career in Prizren where he lived as a young man and then attended the Belgrade Academy of Dramatic Arts from 1956 until 1960. He was married to Serbian actress Branca Petric whom he met while studying in Belgrade. He has two sons Hedon and Uliks Fehmiu.
Fehmiu acted in more than 50 movies and collaborated with Hollywood stars such as Ava Gardner, Olivia de Havilland, Irene Papas, Claudia Cardinale, Candice Bergen, Dirk Bogard, John Houston and many more. He acted in nine different languages. He first became well known with the “Collector of Feathers” (Skupjaki perja), and then with such movies as “Adventures of Ulysses, “Hot Years”, “Deserter”, “The Voice” to name just a few.
He had the ability to portray complex characters, tough, determined, vengeful, heroic but also romantic, compassionate and always with the zest and passion for life so characteristic of his acting. Those soft eyes that seemed to absorb everything in an instant, mysteriously looking ahead, his always steeped in thought and that handsome northern Albanian physique made him irresistible. It makes you wander whether he brought with him the collective history of our people so full of struggles and pain but always with a love that sometimes hurt in its intensity the object of ones desires.
The first film I saw with Bekim Fehmiu acting was The Adventures of Odysseys. He inhabited the role to the degree that left you feeling as though somehow were traveling through space and time and had in front the real hero of Homer’s story. He portrays Odysseys with traits such as determination, pride and strength, attributes which he thought were ones that Albanians possessed. His name calls forth so many images, so many emotions; so many fears, tribulations, turbulent journeys of suffering and pain, from within and without.
Where Bekim Fehmiu’s journey ends ours begins. With his last act our hero brings us back to his world and calls forth inner retrospection. I can’t help thinking of his life as one misunderstood by some who felt that Bekim Fehmiu did not use his success to advance the cause of Albanians in Kosova and in other parts of former Yugoslavia. To do so is to take out of context the circumstances in which he lived and worked. When asked why he had not been more outspoken he said; “For me silence was a painful mode of protests” or “my world was the world of art.” And in a sense to him that world was more real than the madness of the wars raging around him. His artistic life as he says was heavily influenced by Milos Djuricic who was a professor who knew well Albanian literature and history and encouraged him to pursue acting. Some have criticized his decision to live and work in Belgrade but that is a criticism that does not take into account the limited possibilities in Kosova at the time, not to even speak of hermetically closed Albania or other Albanian inhabited territories in the Balkans.
Although he traversed the world with his acting he did not have a chance to play in Albania. But this does not take away his contribution which he has left for future generations of Albanian actors. When the opportunity arose he portrayed an Albanian in Brunello Rondi’s The Voice, La Vocazione di Suor Tereza, 1982 where Fehmiu plays the father of Mother Teresa.
Bekim Fehmiu, whose first name means blessing in Albanian, perhaps did not die as someone blessed but he made sure he lived his life in a way that made others feel blessed. He was a blessing for us Albanians, for many in former Yugoslavia and even beyond. His artistic abilities knew no bounds. Often when we watched his movies we would feel as though we could detect his Albanianes or what some called “exotic” not easily describable accents, posture, or even his looks. What he made look easy required hard work and constant dedication. He learned many languages in order to be able to play diverse roles.
“I wanted to ennoble people with my job. For me acting was a times missionary work and a blessing.” In his efforts to find the beautiful world that seems to live only in our dreams he tried to downplay what he saw as negative and emphasize as what ought to be celebrated. The life of Bekim Fehmiu was in a sense a turbulent journey within a patched up country that glossed over differences, inequalities and injustices.
Is it possible to move passed the politics and the turbulent history of the former Yugoslavia and the space it allotted for Albanians in order to speak of the life of Bekim Fehmiu? Unfortunately it is not. As everyone who tries to transcend entrenched beliefs he tried to piece together few pieces of balkanization. This term is translated by the Merriam Webster dictionary to mean a synonym for breakup of a region or state into smaller and often hostile units. It is hard to leave emotions aside considering the recent violent wars which accompanied the break up of Yugoslavia.
The wounds are too fresh for many in Kosovo perhaps for people to be more open to better ethnic relations between Serbs and Albanians but for Fehmiu this was the only way forward for the region. In 2001 he gave an interview to Vera Grabocka and when she asked him how he felt about interpreting in foreign languages when in his veins flows Albanian blood he answeredעFirst of all Bekim Fehmiu is Albanian willingly or not, he takes this same wherever he goes. I have had a wise father that has given me two advices; First: “There are no good and evil peoples, good or evil religions but only good or evil individuals.” Secondly: “If you do not love your kind, from whom you descend, with all their faults, madness or virtues, you cannot love anyone.”
In a course I took on diplomacy my professor would caution us about ‘going native’ which meant that as a diplomat assigned to a foreign country you become so immersed in their culture that without realizing you lose the ability to be an observer. Fehmiu did not ‘go native’ because he never forgot his people and in fact stopped acting in protest of the growing anti-Albanian policies in the former Yugoslavia in the later 80’s. But he did understand and appreciate what is beautiful about other cultures and peoples and contributed in bridging those differences through his art.
Before we are part of a race, a nation, an ethnic group or even a family we are individuals. Hopefully we use our individuality to contribute for the better to whatever group we belong to. Fehmiu tried throughout his life to do just that. He never forgot his people but also embraced others. But politics did interfere with his emollient nature and the struggle became too great for him. In an interview with Sonja Damzet for Danas in 2001 when asked why he chose this time to speak up he explains that like Hamlet he felt “this time has left a grave”. That is when he stopped acting for good.
A just cause such as that of wanting an equal place for Albanians as other ethnic groups can’t be won only by intellectuals but it needs also heroes willing to fight. Not any less it needs artists that help preserve our distinct culture.
Fehmiu was the first actor in the Former Yugoslavia to chip away at the stereotype of Albanians as simple laborers. Fighting for equality should not warrant showing artistic abilities but it certainly helps in keeping alive the essence of our culture. Art is the expression of our individuality, of how we see the world from the angle which we are perched on.
Often people say that true art is timeless and transcends borders. Such was the art of Bekim Fehmiu. He brought passion to his craft. He stood steadfast in his desire to see his Albanian heritage preserved by working hard to become a great actor.
He passed on the tradition of oral epic by giving his sons his besa (word of honor) that he would tell them his story and that of his people. He taught his children the Albanian language and wrote about his life so that they could better understand where their father and his people came from. It is evident from his limited but substantive interviews that he instilled love for Albania and Albanians in his wife and children and surely those who worked with him.
I feel as though I see him bending over a piece of paper scribbling emotionally his last goodbyes to those who he loved, unable to deal with the words unsaid, that “painful silent protest” having witnessed all the injustice, pain and suffering especially since he stopped acting. He asked to be cremated and for his ashes to be thrown in the river Lumbardh in Prizren. Now Bekim Fehmiu has become part of the land that he so loved. Like Odysseys he is gone in a long journey but unlike this hero never to return home, unlike him our Bekim is not only our own. It is difficult for me to believe in a world beyond the physical one. I would have liked to believe John Donne when he says in his poem Death Be Not Proud:
“One short sleep past, wee wake eternally
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.”
Although I am not endowed with such divine hope I believe that he will live amongst us by continuing to inspire with the passion and zest he had for art. Physically he is gone but through his legacy to the present and future generations his name will be remembered. I hope that his family will find some measure of comfort in knowing that we share their sadness for the loss of a life that gave so much but whose name will be long remembered.
An Albanian Artist
I die each dusk
Am reborn each dawn
The sun pulls me in
The moon spits me out
Joy and sorrow
Each day portends
Violent, passionate
Consuming art
Conceives me anew.
