|
 DIVORCE
ALBANIAN STYLE
(Razvod Po Albanski)
Bulgaria, documentary, 2007; 66 min.
In Albanian, Russian and Polish with English sub-titles
Director/Screenwriter: Adela Peeva
Producers: Adela Peeva and Slobodan Milovanovic
Production Companies: Adela Media, Westdeutcher Rundfunk, Bulgarian
National Television, Film Studio “Kalejdoskop”
Camera: Zhoro Nedelkov
Editors: Jelio Jelev and Diana Zaharieva
Sound: Ivaylo Yanev, Michal Pruski and Cvetelina Cvetkova
Narrator: Ben Cross
Synopsis
SEE Fest welcomes back Adela Peeva,
the internationally acclaimed Bulgarian director of the iconic
Balkan film “Whose
is this song?” (SEE Fest 2006). In Divorce Albanian Style, she again
crosses the regions’ borders, this time to reveal the tragic stories
of Albanians who married Polish, Russian or Czech women in the post-WWII
euphoria of international brotherhood between communists. In 1961 Enver
Xohxa, Albania’s tyrannical leader, broke off relations with the Soviet
Union and Albanian men married to foreign women were forced by the state
to separate from their wives. These women were subsequently charged with
espionage and expelled from Albania. Hohxa quickly created a mechanism to
deal with those who refused to leave. KGB-trained secret police collected
evidence, minor clerks became investigators, carpenters were made into prosecutors
and labor camps were expanded. The women who stayed and their husbands spent
years in prisons, the last released in 1987. Without sentimentality, Divorce
Albanian Style tells the stories of three of these couples, and of the apparatchiks
and officers of the secret police who changed their lives forever.
Awards
“Special Award of the Jury” at National Non - Fiction
Film Festival “Golden Rython” 2007
“
Grand Prix Golden Chest” for Best Documentary at International
TV Festival “Golden Chest” 2007
“
Best Bulgarian Documentary 2007” award by the Bulgarian National
Film Centre
“
Best Documentary 2006 - 2007” award by the Union of Bulgarian Film
makers
SRG SSR Idée Suisse 2008 by the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation
“
Human Rights” award at XIV Sarajevo International Film festival
2008
“
Special Commendation” award, Prix Europe 2008 - Best Television
Documentary
Festivals:
2008 European Festival of Cinema and Television MEMORIMAGE, Barcelona
2008 Eastern Neighbours Film Festival, Utrecht
2008 International Ethnographic Film Festival, Rio de Janeiro
2008 1001 Documentary Film Festival, Istanbul
2008 DOCLISBOA International Film Festival
2008 Cinéma méditerranéen Montpellier
2008 PRIX EUROPE 2008, Berlin
2008 Sardinia Ethnographic International Film Festival
2008 Sarajevo International Film Festival
2008 International Film Festival of European co-production, Sofia
2008 Yerevan International Film Festival GOLDEN APRICOT
2008 Huesca International Film Festival
2008 EURORAMA International Film Festival Trento
2008 Bucharest Film Festival
2008 Sofia Film Fest” International Film Festival
2008 Thessaloniki International Film Festival TIDF
2008 ONE WORLD International Human Rights Film Festival, Prague
2008 Mumbai International Film Festival
2008 Miami International Film Festival
2008 21st FIPA Film Festival - Biarritz
2007 Apolonia Art Fest, Bulgaria
2007 International Film Festival “Astra”, Romania
2007International Film Festival “Kinomania”, Bulgaria
2007 “Golden Rithon” National Non-feature Film Festival,
Bulgaria
2007 “Golden Chest” International TV Festival, Bulgaria
2007 IDFA Film Festival, The Netherlands
Director Adela Peeva
Adela Peeva was born in Sofia, Bulgaria in 1947. She holds a degree from the
Academy for Film, Theatre and TV in Belgrade. From 1973 to 1990 she made more
than 40 documentaries at the Documentary Film Studio in Sofia. Her films often
deal with controversial subjects, and some (In the Name of Sport, Mothers)
were banned in Bulgaria under Communist rule. In 1991 she founded Adela Media
Film and Television Production Company and turned her attention to Balkan regional
issues, making a series of award-winning documentaries on Balkan subjects: Born
from the Ashes, Right to Choose, The Unwanted, and Whose is this Song?.
Her films have participated in over 50 international film festivals and garnered
16 awards.
Select Filmography:
WHOSE IS THIS SONG? (Chia E Tazi Pesen?, 2003)
TWO STEPS OF HOPE (Dve Stapala Nadezhda, 2001)
SUPERFLUOUS PEOPLE (Izlishnite, 1999)
A HOUSE ON A ROCK, A HOUSE ON SAND (Kashta Varhu
Kamak, Kashta Varhu Pyasak, 1998)
THE NEIGHBOR (Sasedkata, 1988)
IN THE NAME OF SPORT (1983)
MAYKI (Mothers, 1981)
DVD Source:
Adela Media
Film & TV Production
Adela Peeva
Slobodan Milovanovic
1164 Sofia, Bulgaria
3, Babuna planina str.
Tel.: + 359 2 862 65 72
Fax: + 359 2 962 47 89
e-mail: adelamedia@adelamedia.net
http://www.adelamedia.net/ |
