MFA Screens 'Divorce Albanian Style'

MFA Screens 'Divorce Albanian Style'

A film about the plight of Albanian men and women who married foreign nationals during the communist era in Albania will be shown at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts

BOSTON, March 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Divorce Albanian Style by Adela Media (Bulgaria, 2007, 66 min, in Albanian-Russian-Polish with English subtitles, narrated by award-winning British actor, Ben Cross) is a heart-rending film that reveals the experience of several thousands of Albanian families who were forcibly separated for marrying foreigners by the totalitarian regime of Albania's Enver Hoxha, the longest-serving European dictator of the 20th century. It tells a story of love and forced separation that takes place in the surreal world of 1960s communist Albania as told by survivors of this extraordinary period.

In 1961, Enver Hoxha broke off Albania's relations with the Soviet Union for its apparent rapprochement with the USA. Albanians married to foreign women and men were forced by the Albanian state to separate from their spouses who were subsequently expelled. The official reason by the communist regime was alleged "espionage." Hoxha quickly created a mechanism to deal with those foreign nationals who refused to leave. His KGB-trained secret police collected "evidence," minor clerks became "investigators," carpenters were made into prosecutors and labor camps in Albania expanded.

Many of these "mixed marriage" couples were imprisoned for many years -- the last person was released as recently as 1987. Divorce Albanian Style tells the stories of three of these Albanian-Foreign National couples, and of the apparatchiks and officers of the secret police who changed their lives forever. The MFA screening is sponsored by the Frosina Information Network, a non-profit Albanian cultural resource in Boston (see www.frosina.org).

The films of Adela Peeva, the producer and director of Divorce Albanian Style, were always considered controversial. Her films "In the name of sport" and "Mothers" were prohibited by the communist regime in Bulgaria, but with the advent of democracy, she made award-winning films especially on Balkan themes. Peeva's "Born from the Ashes," "Right to chose," "The Unwanted" are internationally known, award-winning films. Her documentary "Whose is this Song?" was nominated for the European Film Academy's "Best Documentary-Prix ARTE" 2003 award, and was shown at over 50 international film festivals and awarded 16 prizes. The recently made Divorce Albanian Style was also nominated for European Film Academy's Best Documentary-Prix "ARTE" in 2007 and has already received national and international awards.

Adela Peeva, a Member of the European Film Academy, holds a degree from the Academy for Film, Theatre and TV in Belgrade, Serbia. From 1973 until 1990 Peeva was employed at the Documentary Film Studio in Sofia, Bulgaria. In 1991 she established her own production company "ADELA MEDIA."

Divorce Albanian Style will be screened at the Remis Auditorium, Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Avenue, Boston, on March 9, 2008 at 1:00 PM. Tickets are $9 general admission ($8 for MFA members, students & seniors) and can be purchased at the MFA's website: www.mfa.org or at the MFA's Box Office, Tel: 617 369-3306.

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Source: Frosina Information Network

CONTACT: Van Christo of Frosina Information Network, +1-617-482-2002,
VanChristo@frosina.org

Web site: http://www.frosina.org/
http://www.mfa.org/

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Profile: International Entertainment