Within beauty lurks danger: at least that is what Albanian communist censors thought. Which is probably why this lavishly shot and seemingly innocuous tribute to the Albanian landscape – where we see pretty, fashionable young people marvel at historic towns over the Adagio for Strings, among other Western music – was shelved and never seen again until today.
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 1974
These some of the most viewed trailers for movies released in 1974:
Five friends head out to rural Texas to visit the grave of a grandfather. On the way, they stumble across what appears to be a deserted house, only to discover something sinister within.
John Pilger returns to Vietnam in 1974. America had withdrawn its ground forces at the beginning of the previous year, he reports, yet the war had not ended.
On a beach in Nice, François meets the mysterious Peggy and falls in love with her. Following her to a villa, he meets Marc, a lawyer who has a strange relationship with the girl.
A collage film, a dialogue between mother and the unborn child, the film can be seen as a personal self-analysis by René Paquot, who dreamily delivers his conflicts with maternal, medical and religious authority.
A short film that originally played before showings of "Heroes Two" - in which Fu Sheng, Chen Kuan Tai and Chi Kuan-Chun demonstrate different techniques of Hung boxing.
