Word: albania
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...Vrioni castles have been destroyed; the Vrioni attitude has not. When the iron curtain cracked in Albania, the last bastion of communism in Eastern Europe, Holta Vrioni acted. "What motivated me was the suffering and the persecution that my family has seen all these years," she remembers. "I had this opportunity, coming from a well-educated family. I would see the difference between the East and the West of Europe. That made me angry because of the reality I was living...
...Albania has had a tumultous adolescence. According to Vrioni, the communists still cling to power. "They still survive. They were 48 years in power which is a hell of a lot of period time." Vrioni says "hell" the way she says "absolutely"--with iron conviction. "We still have difficulties separating them and destroying them. They have spies everywhere. They know everything...
...Mark-Alem digs deeper into the history and subconscious of the nation through its dreams of the past several centuries, he uncovers a strong personal and historical connection with the fate of his country and native land, Albania. One night at a dinner with his family he hears for the first time his family's legendary epic song. He is struck by how the "words and voice alike might as easily have come from the mouth of dead as of the living." The music of the strange boxlike instrument the musicians carry is akin to "the hollow...inside...
...Murger's novel are flamboyant, young artists, but the 150 years since its publication have not been kind to these bohemians. Kaurismaki makes them too scruffy to be dashing and too old, it seems, to be passionate. Inexplicably, Rodolfo (Matti Pellonpaa) has been made an illegal immigrant from Albania (perhaps this detail is meant to account for his occasionally irritating accent). All three artists seem to have given up the struggle to attain fame and wealth about 10 years ago. For most of the film, they can barely manage the energy to light a cigarette...
...Albania...