[ad_1]
He was young like them, the boys of the Beatles when they sang “Let it Be!” Far away from England, far away from the freedoms they enjoyed, but he experienced redemption in his life when, as a young man of twenty, he gave up his medical studies to pursue art…
In 1965, when the fame of the famous British musician was at its peak, Mevlan Shanajt was fortunate enough to receive the destiny star in the film industry.
A picture taken by the Higher School of Arts photographer Ilia Terpini fell into the hands of director Viktor Gjika, who had already started shooting the film “I teti ne bronz”.
“He invited me to Kinostudio to do a film test for the Commissar. At that time, at your age, I thought the Commissar was a big man who had fought in wars. I didn’t know that”, the famous director confessed to the liberal arts students of the European University of Tirana.
In conversation with students who have chosen performing arts as well as music and visual arts courses, the director of such renowned films as The Emperor’s Bullets, Flête te Badha or the comedy Palace 197 shared some of the key moments of his artistic career.
“I belong to the philosophy of ‘Let it be’. My generation loves it and absorbs it. With that in mind, I went to the screening with an attitude of disregard. But my apathy persisted. The next day, the day after, the day after, after calling me again and again, a nice guy, makeup artist Llukan Bushi, said to me: “Do you understand that he gave me the role?” No, I told him. “But why does he call you every day?” You got the role, he said, and I left. Another caught me in the street and said: “Futtu took measures on the clothes”. The director further added that it was coincidence that allowed him to make his debut in cinemas and play a role he described as brilliant. In his words, chance sometimes becomes necessity.
He further admitted that by chance he had to find the best Albanian films like Sandër Prosi, Kadri Roshi, Pandi Raidhi, Vangjush Furxhi, Pirro Mani, Bexhet Nelku.
“Think about it, how can someone like you have the best of Albania? The shooting of these films took months, and it was a rare stroke of luck, not because of my merit, but luck that allowed me to find the stars of Albanian cinema. That redeemed generation! I made friends with everyone and when I had the opportunity to become a director, I brought them all into my films”, Mr. Shanaghi said.
Shanaj, who has been awarded titles such as “well-deserved artist” and “master”, shared with the youth the challenges faced by creators in the field of cinematography under the communist regime.
“The system in which I create my work is a system of censorship and self-censorship. I am a person who suffers from self-censorship. It is more severe than censorship. I knew it was not allowed, I deleted it myself, and I didn’t expect that others would delete it too. But in the system we operate, it is not appropriate for designated people who are paid – I tell you, they are the most ignorant – not to come and give you advice.”
He said that Albanian cinema, which began to take shape in the 1950s, with actors and directors graduating mainly from Russia, Czech and Hungary, now came to an ignorant country. “Albania has always been very ignorant, and after the Second World War, a lot of young people went to vocational schools, mainly in the east, but came back. I wonder, that ignorant man working in an office, how did he choose the smartest people? Pirro Mani, Dhimitër Anagnosti, Viktor Gjika, Ismail Kadare, Dritëro Agolli, Kristaq Rama, Shaban Haderi, Cesk Zadeja… came from the new system, with new thinking. With ambition, they entered the vocational schools, and when they came to Albania – I’m talking about cinema – they brought the experience of the learned schools, crossed with the greatest cinema – Italian neorealism, which is still the greatest cinema.”
The director said that Albanian films, from a realistic point of view, have Italian neorealism and Eastern professionalism, and one thing is the influence of ideology. We live in a strictly controlled system. The East is like this, but Albania is still ignorant, poor, ignorant, led by ignorant rather than capable people. “
The director admires early Albanian films, which are of very high quality. “Because he brings the best knowledge. They are all named “otlichiye”, which means “excellent” in Russian.
For someone who comes from Albania, the end of the world, the end of the cauldron, to come out “otlichiye”, it’s not a small thing. It shows Sedra. Individuals are very good to us. “
He also spoke about his friendship with Albanian film actors and directors.
“The most concrete example I had happened with Rikard Ljarje in 1975, when we accidentally shot the film “Rrugicat che rihin diell” together with my classmate Saimir Kumbaron, because the director Hysen Hakani fell ill and left the film. The film was shot by an assistant. Rikard and I were friends and we slept in the same room. Many years later, in 1989, in “Flête te Bardha”, I paid off my debt and gave him the main role, that of the writer, but we slept in the same room again. Thus, my acquaintance with Rikard Ljarje”.
He tells how he began to leave behind the behavior redeemed by his youth and build the image of an artist. “I started to become an artist and became selfish. As an artist you are selfish”, he jokes, adding that “the public made me an artist. I began to take off the shoes of youth and did not make excessive movements. I contracted, I became like a hedgehog. From the inside, I calmed down, began to be more responsible, more interested, read a little more, have a more controlled mind, get rid of any bad habits… I did not have any problems with bad habits, but I was excluded. The name, the contact with the public, the fame, made me a censored person”, reveals the director.
Shanaj said censorship exists in all Eastern countries. “When I read the memoirs of Czech Milos Forman, they are the same as here, because I am afraid of spies… When I have the opportunity to go to these countries, Czech Republic and Poland, I find Prague very strange; it is the same censorship and control system.”
He also focused on the ban on film production during the communist regime, while he remained active in public and media debates.
“The films made in that period have ideological constraints on the whole society today, because it is an established system, but there is a choice to choose or not to choose it. If you don’t like it, don’t watch it. I have grandchildren in America and they want to know who my grandfather was. Through movies, people know history, traditions, customs, characters, what it was like to be a servant, a spy… Those who want to isolate these films, don’t make the same mistakes they have made in the past for many years, because we have a committee, a censorship system, but it will be the new censorship to create another committee, to decide what to delete. Who are you to impose yourself on creators?!” He describes the interference with creativity as a phenomenon that is not allowed and a censorship of new forms.
He criticized the moral crisis that Albanian society is going through. “We justify these moral defects of human beings. They say he is poor, desolate, he did it out of trouble… I am sorry. Do you know why I am sorry? I am a child raised by my mother. My father left me when I was very young, I did not know how to live without my mother’s hand, I regarded it as my belly button until I was 14 years old. I escaped, I escaped: I came to Tirana, I understood what life is like. But at this age, I remember my mother’s teachings: “What you want for yourself, don’t ask others!” These are all from the Bible, she did not tell me from the Bible, but in her own way, “Do good and throw it into the sea!” He is also a mother’s son!”
In these great messages of life, I say I have walked in life. I advise you too. If you do it right, throw it into the sea, you will surpass Professor Mevlani! You will become knowledgeable, “the respected artist advises a new generation of students.
For a young man who is faced with the choice of further education, artistic dedication or the challenge of studying in an era of rapid technological development, how he chose to study at a higher art school, become an actor and become an actor. Director,
“I completed four years of studies at the medical school. I registered in 1959”. Describing the countryside of Tirana at that time, especially Dibra Street, where the old medical school was located, where cell workers and tin workers lived, he confessed that it was the great actor Aleksandër Moisiu who made him change his field of study.
“It was a great discovery. I heard it on the radio: Aleksandër Moisiu, the great Albanian artist. At that age, dreams fly away. I also read a book by Lec Shllaku about Zef Jubani. At that age, what you read affects and imagines… That was the first bullying.”
After completing vocational school, he remembers that his first acting competition was held at the People’s Theatre, and the Actors’ High School was named after Aleksandër Moisiut, who led him to the path of art. “They didn’t let me go because I had been approved to become a doctor. At that time, Spartak Njela’s mother, Vera Pogiani, was deputy minister of health. I went, and today I am here with good intentions.”
The famous director has something to say to young people. “According to my logic, the only thing that is not custom-made is art. If you don’t have sensitivity and the desire to be an artist, you can’t be an artist,” Shanaji concluded.
[ad_2]
Source link
