Art/Movie and Theater

Albania pairs up for film biz

Tiny nation leans on co-prod'ns to boost profile

By NICK HOLDSWORTH Variety Magazine

TIRANA, Albania -- The tiny Balkans country -- where thousands of egg-shaped concrete gun emplacements and bunkers still disfigure the land, a reminder of the paranoia of the past -- is pushing hard for European Union membership, with some 90% of the population behind it.

That may be a long way off -- even with support from southerly neighbor and EU member Greece.

But filmmakers in a country where cinema all but collapsed in the last 20 years have a secret weapon: Eurimages.

Literature/Gjuhesi

Bisede postmortem (pjesa e katert)

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A.T. Sapo permendet Aleksandrin e Madh, apo sic e quajme ne shqiptaret duke e qasur me shume afer vetes tone, Leka i Madh. Thuhet qe ky gjysem maqedonas, i ushqyer me qumeshtin e nenes molose, megjithese greqishten nuk e kishte gjuhen e nenes, kishte nje admirim te jashtezakonshem per kulturen helene.

P.G. Kjo periudhe u qujt aleksandrine(ose helenistike) nga Aleksandrija, qyteti ku ma teper lulzoi kultura Greke, e cila u shperngul nga At-dheu, tue rilindun ne trajte te re ne vendet e pushtueme nga Leka i madh. Ne Aleksandri, qytetnimi Athenas ndeshet e perzihet me qytetnimet e lashta te lindjes. Letersija helenistike qe gjate shekujvet V e VI P.Kr. kishte per qender e u zhvillue veten ne Athene, tashti bahet universale e shperndahet ne krejt ket bote te helenizueme.

Literature/Gjuhesi

Bisede postmortem (pjesa e trete)

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A.T. Me sa dime rreth periudhave te ndryshme historike te antikitetit grek, qytetet-shtete greke rreth vitit 499 PK perfshihet ne nje lufte qe zgjati disa dekada me perandorine perse, e cila ishte me e fuqishmja perandori e kohes. A kishin influence keto luftra ne zhvillimin e artit e letersise ne qytetet greke ku ato levroheshin?

P.G. Kjo periudhe âsht pàdyshim mâ e randsishmja e historis politike te Greqis. Filloi me luften kunder Persianvet e u mbyll me prendimin e liris Greke. Lufta kunder Persianvet u mbyll me fitoren e Atinavet qe kishin dhane pshtetjen e ndihmen mâ te madhe. Si rrjedhim Atina qe ne krye te levizjes letrare e artistike.

Literature/Gjuhesi

Identities: Who Killed the Sultan?by Robert Murray Davis


Translations of little-known Albanian oral epics add another dimension to the endless conversation over the Battle of Kosovo.


The Battle of Kosovo 1389: An Albanian Epic. Introduction by Anna Di Lellio; translations by Robert Elsie. I. B. Tauris, 2009.

Rudyard Kipling may have been right when he wrote that “There are nine and 60 ways of constructing tribal lays and every single one of them is right,” but as Anna Di Lellio shows in the masterly introduction to these translations of eight Albanian variants of the story of Sultan Murat and a Balkan Christian hero, there can be at least as many ways of understanding, interpreting, and using or misusing them.

Opinion/Kritike

The unfinished state
Haaretz by Shlomo Avineri

PRISTINA, Kosovo - On my previous visit to Pristina, in 1995, Kosovo was still under Serbian control, and the Albanian population, which is the vast majority in the region, considered itself to be under occupation. I was a member of an international committee that met with the Albanians' leaders, and also with the Serbian governor of the province; when the official spotted the Israeli member of the delegation, he approached me and said: "As you know, for us Kosovo is like Jerusalem." I told him that I knew this was how Serbs felt, but as someone who is prepared to think about dividing Jerusalem, under certain conditions, I was perhaps the wrong person to whom this analogy may appeal.

Literature/Gjuhesi

Bisede postmortem (pjesa e dyte)
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A.T. Deri tash duket sikur poezia i paska pas kembet te ngulitura ne toke. Me didaktizmin e moralizimin e saj ngjan teper e shprehur kundrejt tallazeve e gezimeve tokesore te se perditeshmes se njerezve.

P.G. Poezija melike qe vjen pas âsht lyrika e vertete, ku s’ka me qellime didaktike, satirike, por vargu âsht shprehje e kulluet, e thjeshte e ndiesise. Ndersa te elegjija e jambi muzika qendron ne rang te dyte(e me vone hiqet shqimit), te poezija melike shoqnimi muzikuer âsht ngushtesisht i lidhun me poezine. Nese poeti kendon i vetem, at-bote poezija quhet monodike, nese kendojne shume vete, at-here quhet korale. Dallimi midis monodikes e korales nuk qendron vetem ne kte procedimin e trajte, por edhe ne vete mrendinen e poezise; pse ndersa poezija monodike(qe u zhvillua mâ fort nder Eole) âsht subjektive, ajo korale(qe u zhvillua nder Doriane) âsht subjektive e me karakter lodrues.

Literature/Gjuhesi

Bisede postmortem
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Krijimtaria, sidomos ajo letrare, per te mundur te transmetoje mesazhin e saj perdor jo rralle metafiziken. Nepermjet trashendencave metafizike ne kohe e hapsire arrijme te depertojme, te gjejme lidhje e kuptime me periudha kohe, ngjarje e personazhe te se kaluares, apo atyre qe priten te vine ne te ardhmen, qe na flasin e vijne deri tek ne te gjallet e te sotmes. Pavarsisht metafiziken, ky proces eshte pjese e ekzistenciales, e i jep kuptim asaj.