Albanian Film Tells Stories of Suffering Under Communist Rule

A new documentary entitled 'Tirona's Unyielding Gentlemen', which tells the stories of the suffering of some of the Albanian capital's most prominent figures during the Communist period, was screened for the first time at the Millennium Cinema in Tirana on Friday.

The film, whose title uses Tirana's name in the local dialect (Tirona), was screened to mark the 102th anniversary of the city becoming the country's capital.

The creator of the documentary, Admirina Peci, said that its purpose was to reveal a history kept silent and often distorted by Communist propaganda which for 75 years presented Tirana as a backward and undeveloped place until the Communists came to power in 1945.

"In the period before becoming the capital, Tirana was among the most developed cities in Albania, in all fields - medicine, education, trade, etc. After it was proclaimed the capital, development was even more frantic in the 1930s and even in the war years, it saw a peak of development and prosperity," Peci told BIRN.

"This was followed by a wave of shock as soon as the Communist regime was installed in Albania, immediately wiping out the entire city elite, who [the Communists] saw as opponents and as a threat to their political power, and the theft of all the wealth of Tirana families who for centuries had run their businesses and ventures," she said.

She said that the city's liberal spirit was destroyed as the persecution of wealthy educated families persisted for years.

"This story was always kept quiet and for decades, only the propaganda version of the former regime was promoted," she added.

The documentary tells the stories of 14 individuals - engineers, lawyers, journalists, athletes and military officers.

One of them is...