Description
Book SynopsisAlbanian cinema truly represents a terra incognita for most of the world. Decidedly Europe’s most isolated country during the Cold War era, communist Albania had already been cut off from the West for centuries as a one of the western-most outposts of the Ottoman empire. Nonetheless, and unknown to most of the world, communist Albania had a vibrant cinema tradition. Although bound by official orthodoxy, the films of the state-run Kinostudio enterprise were surprisingly innovative and, at times, daringly subversive. This book opens with examinations of moving images in Albania from the Ottoman period, through those captured under independence and the Fascist occupation. It subsequently foregrounds transformations in Kinostudio, from the early optimism of socialist realism through the brooding social angst of the 1980s, which constitute a bridge to the socioeconomic concerns of Albanian films of the postcommunist period.
Table of ContentsPreface: A Personal Journey towards and through Albania and Its Cinema
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Albania: The Context for a Little-Known Cinema
Chapter I: The Roots of Cinema in Albania: The Ottoman Period, Independence, and the Fascist Occupation
Chapter II: The Birth and Development of a Socialist Cinema in Albania
Chapter III: The Flourishing of Kinostudio
Chapter IV: A Cinema in Isolation
Chapter V: Kinostudio in the Post-Hoxha Era
Works Cited
Some Words in Conclusion—Towards a Cinema of Postcommunism
Works Cited
Filmography
