TIRANA, Oct. 19 – Teodor Laà§o, one of Albania’s greatest modern authors has passed away at 80, leaving behind a successful career as a writer, politician and diplomat.
He was buried this week at his home village of Dardha in Korà§a, southeastern Albania, which he never abandoned throughout his life.
Writers, artists and politicians paid tribute to Laà§o as one of the key figures of modern Albanian literature and a liberal voice in Albania’s transition to democracy.
Born in Dardha in what has now turned into a tourist destination, Teodor Laà§o established his reputation as a major prose writer of the socialist period with his novel “Tokà« e ashpà«r,” Tirana 1971 (Rough land), which dealt with the collectivization of agriculture in mountain regions, writes Robert Elsie, a Canadian specialist in Albanian studies in the writer’s bio.
The author was head of the ‘New Albania’ film studios and, after the fall of the dictatorship, became chairman of the Social-Democratic parliamentary group. He published about a dozen collections of short stories, five other novels and numerous plays. Laà§o’s short stories, which are in general more effective than his novels, have appeared in: “Portat e dashurisà«,” Tirana 1980 (The gates of love); “Njà« dità« dhe njà« jetà«,” Tirana 1983 (A day and a life); “Zemà«rimi i njà« njeriu tà« urtà«,” Tirana 1990 (The wrath of a sage man); “Mozaik dashurish,” Tirana 1998 (Mosaic of loves); and in English in “A lyrical tale in winter,” Tirana 1988.
Teodor Laà§o was active in politics since the fall of the dictatorship as head of the parliamentary group of the Social Democratic Union from 1992 to 1994 and as culture minister from 1994 to 1997. In June 1998, his party was renamed the Liberal Democratic Union. In 2007, he served as Albanian ambassador to Russia.
Below is what some of the country’s most renowned figures, including writers Ismail Kadare and Dritero Agolli as well as politician Arian Starova, his successor as the head of the Liberal Democratic Union Party wrote in a joint obituary.
Writer, playwright, scriptwriter, politician and diplomat Teodor Laà§o passed away in the early hours of Saturday, Oct. 15.
He was born on Sept. 29 [1936] in Dardhe, in a village which, according to him, was second to none “where on summer nights, the sky was magic that could enlighten even vague spirits: with big sparkling stars, with vanishing stars, triggering despair for lives that never come back.”
And his life did not vanish today to reach this sky, with the despair that he will no longer be among us, by leaving his family, colleagues, friends, his beloved and many readers of his work in grief.
The son of an immigrant, like many migrants from Dardha in the U.S., he would meet his father Pandi Laà§o for the first and last time when he was 20, living his early youth far away from his father’s love, and nostalgically waiting the letters coming from across the Atlantic.
He lived with his mother who would become the vision of the future writer: sweet, reserved, loving and hardworking:
His house in Dardha has remained to this day the spot of Teodor Laà§o’s favorite pilgrimage.
He never betrayed his hometown of Dardha. He went there and came back like Antheus. That shelter became an inspiration for so many of Laà§o’s fiction works.
“Old childhood home/ the ancient door opens/ the door that moaned at me/ when I appeared rarely, cold and late?
Among his 55 literary works in prose, poetry, drama, screenplays, journalism and travel notes, that would kick off their journey in the distant year of 1958 until the very last days of his life without letting go of his pen, the short stories “Kukudhi” and “Puna fizike e akademikeve” (The academics’ physical work) of April 2016 and his novel “Gropas 67,” written and published in 2014, had their roots in Dardha.
The father of two talented sons in the field of culture and TV show, Pandi and Bledi, the husband of actress Mirjana, he felt warmness in his home of literature and culture until his last days like few others.
With the passing away of Teodor Laà§o, literature lost a renowned figure of Albanian prose, culture its former dedicated minister of 1996-1998, the society a committed citizen, an MP, diplomat, analyst and protector of democratic values.
In politics, Teodor Laà§o is found at the beginnings of democracy. He was one of the founders of the Social-Democratic Party and was its deputy chair until 1994. He became an MP from the first multi-party elections in 1992 and was reelected for three consecutive terms.
In 1995, he founded the Social Democratic Union Party (the current Liberal Democratic Union), a party which he chaired for a decade and led it to have its own parliamentary group. Laà§o has been honored with three national awards and the Migjeni Prize. Laà§o’s human dimension and his prose are admired by everybody at our time and will survive times to come.
Politicians pay tribute
“It was with deep regret that I learned about the passing away of renowned intellectual Teodor Laà§o, one of the most renowned and representative writers of Albanian contemporary literature, who apart from shaping a modern profile in fiction, never became indifferent to democratic developments, by turning into one of the main voices in Albania’s parliamentary life,” wrote President Nishani in his condolences message.
“As culture minister, Teodor unveiled another dimension of his portrait, by preserving the whole of cultural infrastructure and developing real policies on Albanian cultural and art heritage as authentic part of our national identity,” said the President.
Paying tribute at a ceremony held at the culture ministry premises, Parliament Speaker Ilir Meta described Laà§o’s death as a great loss for Albanian literature, culture and diplomacy.
“The passing away of a great personality such as the renowned writer and publicist Teodor Laà§o is a loss which I believe will be felt by everybody. It will be felt in our public life as his contribution has been obvious from the time he actively contributed to culture and literature, but even in promoting democratic processes by giving contribution in the Albanian Parliament, the country’s governance but even the diplomatic service,” he said.
Opposition Democratic Party leader Lulzim Basha said “the physical departure of people of such dimension such as well-known writer, publicist, politician, diplomat and screenwriter Teodor Laà§o marks the beginning of their immortality. He will be remembered as an important factor in the establishment and consolidation of plurality of thinking in democratic processes.”
