When altcine visited Tirana last winter, the biggest film festival in Albania was celebrating its first ten years so what a better occasion to sit and talk with the people responsible for this.
“We do not want to see this burning desire for filmmaking goes off” says Ilir Butka at one point and this spirit of ambitions and collaborations runs through this two-part interview very intensively, in terms of past activities and future plans.
The first part handles the cultural and financial importance of Tirana International Film Festival, how TIFF first started and its objective difficulties, how the festival inspired and encouraged a whole movement of festivals and film schools in Albania these last 10 years. It goes on with the audience’s reception and acceptance of this new standard and how a modern theater would make TIFF even more important and attractive outside Albania, and the rest of the Balkans especially.
The second part starts with a brief description of Butka and Domi’s production company, Skandal, how the lack of a substantial production mechanism has turned one of Albania’s weakest points into opportunities for foreign productions and how Skandal, Albania Film Commission (founded by Butka and Domi) or the Albanian Center of Cinematography itself, work and collaborate through all this. They talk about the production companies and their possibilities, as they conclude in a more relaxed mood naming their favorite Albanian films.
Can contemporary Albanian cinema, including films, festivals, education and the necessary literature offer to the region what these times demand from them?
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