Divorce Albanian Style Bulgaria
2007, 66min.
Prod./Script/Dir.: Adela Peeva, Dir. of Phot.: Joro Nedelkov, Compos.: Fatos Querimaj, Sound: Ivaylo Yanev, Michal Pruski, Edit. Jelio Jelev, Diana Zaharieva.
In 1961 Albania broke off its ties with the Soviet Union. Communist dictator Enver Hoxha had been estranged from the USSR ever since the new Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev had launched the de-Stalinization process five years earlier. The divorce between Albania and ‘mother’ Russia led the regime to insist that countless Albanian citizens leave their foreign-born partners. In this film, both the victims of these divorces and those charged with enforcing them look back on the events. Men and their foreign wives suddenly became suspects in the eyes of the Hoxha regime and were arrested. The charge invariably was “espionage for the Soviet Union” or “propaganda against the Albanian state.” The interrogation methods were not exactly warranted, and people who refused to obey could count on lengthy sentences as “public enemies”. The only escape was to show unconditional loyalty to the great leader Hoxha by divorcing their spouses. Their children had to side with the Albanian parent as well, at least if they aspired to attend university and acquire a job. Victims in Albania, Poland and Russia reminisce about their broken marriages. A man pays a visit to the prison camp where he stayed for 18 years. He is unable to forgive Hoxha’s henchmen, who in turn tell the viewers their consciences are clear. After all, they were only doing their job.
Awards
Special award of the Jury (Golden Rython Bulgarian Documentary Film Festival 007); Golden Chest Grand Prix for Best Documentary (Golden Chest International TV Festival 2007); Best Bulgarian Documentary 2007 Award; SRG SSR Idռe Suisse Prize of the Swiss Broadcast Corporation Basel-Karlsruhe Forum 2008
Production Company
Adela Media Film & TV Production
E-mail: adelamedia@adelamedia.net
www.adelamedia.net
| Peeva, Adela Adela Peeva (born 1947, Sofia, Bulgaria)
Peeva graduated from the Academy for Film, Theater and TV in Belgrade. She directed TV programs in former Yugoslavia between 1972 and 1973. From 1973 to 1990 she made more than 40 documentaries. From 1988-1989 Peeva was a film director in Bojana Film Studio in Sofia. Since 1991, she has been the founder and owner of Adela Media Film and TV Production Company and has made in cooperation with international partners over 25 documentaries.
Filmography (selected)
Mothers (1982), In the Name of Sport (1983), The Neighbor (1987), Old Gold (1989), A Horse with Ribbon (1989), Two Steps of Hope (2001), Whose Is This Song? (2003), Divorce Albanian Style (2007)
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