Country: Italy
Year: 2012
Duration: 80'
In early March 1991 some ships appeared for the first time on the horizon off the Italian Adriatic coast. Since then that stretch of Southern Italy has seen a stunning number of ships full of people headed to shore, in what was later acknowledged as an exodus of Albanians. It was a collective escape of staggering proportion, the likes of which hadn’t been seen in Europe since World War 2; it affected various kinds of different people, all united by the desire to leave Albania behind.
Biography
film director
Roland Sejko
Roland Sejko (Albania, 1968) graduated from the University of Tirana’s history and philology department in 1990 with a degree in foreign languages and literature. He fled Albania in 1991 on one of the many ships of the great exodus and settled in Rome. He has worked for the Istituto Luce since 1996, first in the film department, then in the historical archives. Aside from his work in the film industry, he is also a journalist; he was the editor in chief of “Bota Shqiptare,” the only periodical for Albanians published in Italy. He made his debut as a screenwriter and director in 2008 with his documentary Albania il paese di fronte, produced and distributed by the Istituto Luce.
FILMOGRAFIA
Albania il paese di fronte (coregia/codirector Mauro Brescia, doc., 2008), Anija-La nave (doc., 2012).
Declaration
film director
“It’s the story of an escape and of a journey, tracing three large migration waves of Albanians. Other documentaries focused mostly on their arrival; this film instead captures mainly the departure of the ship, trying to understand the reasons for such an escape, and narrating for the first time the boarding. Ou intention was to hive off the masses of the exodus by placing faces to people in the crowd on board through their testimonies and by using inedited archive materials.”
Cast
& Credits
regia, soggetto/director, story
Roland Sejko
fotografia/cinematography Sabrina Varani
montaggio/film editing Luca Onorati
musica/music Robert Bisha
interpreti/cast Majlinda Osmani, Arben Guxholli, Kozeta Guxholli, Chiara Guxholli, Eneida Del Prete, Avni Delvina, Edlira Pagria Delvina, Qani Lumi, Eva Karafili, Ivo Calebotta, Ardian Elezi, Bashkim Leba, Agron Shehaj, Halim Milaqi, Cosimo D’Alò produzione, vendita all’estero/production, world sales Istituto Luce Cinecittà
fotografia/cinematography Sabrina Varani
montaggio/film editing Luca Onorati
musica/music Robert Bisha
interpreti/cast Majlinda Osmani, Arben Guxholli, Kozeta Guxholli, Chiara Guxholli, Eneida Del Prete, Avni Delvina, Edlira Pagria Delvina, Qani Lumi, Eva Karafili, Ivo Calebotta, Ardian Elezi, Bashkim Leba, Agron Shehaj, Halim Milaqi, Cosimo D’Alò produzione, vendita all’estero/production, world sales Istituto Luce Cinecittà
