V - Kinostudio in the Post-Hoxha Era

Summary

Abstract: Following the death of Enver Hoxha, the Kinostudio productions, in many ways, continued the themes of the period of isolation. They were works of high production values that dared explore contemporaneous sociopsychological concerns of the present day. Nonetheless, they were even more explicit in their social critique and varied with regards to genre. The period also saw high-quality literary adaptations, including films by Kujtim Çashku and Dhimitër Anagnosti based on novels by Ismail Kadare. At the time of the death of Hoxha, Spartak Peçani's Të mos heshtësh/Speak Up! (1985) tackles the theme of official corruption. Esat Musliu's Rrethi i kujtesës/The Circle of Memory (1987), one of Albania's rare psychological thrillers, explores the psychological trauma induced by past atrocities. And finally, Eduard Makri's Shpella e piratëve/The Pirate Cave (1990) depicts fantasy and adventure, also virtually unknown in Albanian cinema.

Key words: Albania, cinema, communism, social critique, psychological thriller, adventure

The Kinostudio films of the last half of the 1980s decisively continued along the same path as during the earlier years of the decade. Albanian cinema no longer needed to be rooted in a distant past in order to avoid censorship. More overt criticism of sociopolitical issues was hesitatingly possible, and often this was no longer couched in allegory. Although the communist regime in Albania appeared, on one level, to maintain its power at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the ensuing transformations in the former Soviet bloc, this apparent stability would soon be threatened. This brief chapter explores Kinostudio production from the death of Enver Hoxha and the onset of the Ramiz Alia period through the fall of communism. Following a discussion of the sociopolitical climate of this six-year period, it will provide a short overview of the cinema climate during this period. Five films will then be discussed in various levels of detail. They include two adaptations of the novels of Ismail Kadare; an indictment of official corruption; a psychological thriller, and an adventure film, the latter belonging to a genre especially rarely present in Albanian films of either the Kinostudio era or the subsequent postcommunist period.

Ramiz Alia's Albania

Immediately following the death of Enver Hoxha, his successor, Ramiz Alia, spoke to thousands of mourners in Skanderbeg Square, vowing that he would continue to support his predecessor's fidelity to Stalin and fight against revisionism.