Albania and neighboring Yugoslavia officially broke ties in 1948. But in 1971, the Hoxha regime was honored to welcome the ethnic Albanian actor Bekim Fehmiu (1936-2010), at the time an international star in Yugoslav theater and film. Before his trip to Albania, Fehmiu had appeared in the popular Italian television smash The Odyssey (1968) and the Cannes-winning I Even Met Happy Gypsies (1967). Dokufest will also feature a photo exhibit of recently-discovered still images taken during Bekim Fehmiu’s Albanian visit.
A documentary exploring how Albanians, including many Muslims, helped and sheltered Jewish refugees during WWII at their own risk, and trying to help the son of an Albanian baker that housed a Jewish family for a year return some Hebrew books that the family had to leave behind.
Through rare archive footage, the documentary traces the forty years of Enver Hoxha's communist regime in Albania, revealing cinema as a weapon of power.
A dream destination for holidaymakers and a magnet for organised crime, is Albania ready to join the European Union? Strategically important in countering Russian and Chinese influence and managing the migration crisis, the EU seems prepared to overlook serious breaches of democratic norms and press freedoms.
Albania is the country in Europe that Europe probably knows the least about. Underdeveloped yesterday, Marxist today, breaking with the Kremlin, in friendship with Red China, we hardly know more.
Popular movie trailers from 1972
These some of the most viewed trailers for movies released in 1972:
A guardian angel agrees to help Willie Mays win the National League Pennant if Mays agrees to take care of Veronica, a lonely, mischievous orphan girl.
During the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, Chen Zhen, the star pupil of a recently-deceased martial arts teacher battles a Japanese dojo which seeks the demise of his fighting school.
Jack White throws a big party at which many of the artists he has produced perform. He has had an eventful life in which he has always remained true to his ideals, first as a footballer, then as a pop singer and then as a producer, even in the face of fierce opposition from others.
Paul, a former womanizer, marries the head of the medical department's "unattractive" daughter Christine because he thinks attractive women can't be trusted and make poor wives.
Inside the Kit Kat Club of 1931 Berlin, starry-eyed singer Sally Bowles and an impish emcee sound the clarion call to decadent fun, while outside a certain political party grows into a brutal force.
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