BY ALMA MILE
Memorie.al / “Victory, victory, Islam!” shouted Pepini, as he began to make out the shore over there. He was escaping isolation, dictatorship…! Even today, this cry of joy and liberation seems more than natural, but for this, before the 1990s, the “reward” was only a bullet. In the film “The Silent Duel,” the role of Pepini, one of those trying to escape, is played by the actor and director Bujar Kapexhiu. Undoubtedly, he is the most sympathetic character in the film, and his expressions today are lined up on the “list” of catchphrases that continue to be used in everyday life. Kapexhiu was young at the time, and with the curiosity of a young man, he wasn’t satisfied only with the script or the official version of the event on which the film was based. Today, he recalls the rumors circulating about the truthfulness of the event, as well as the meeting with the hero, Officer Spiro Kote…!
Mr. Bujar, the film “The Silent Duel” is based on a real event, despite the artistic treatment. What did you know about it at the time the film was being shot?
We certainly knew that it was based on a true event. We knew the official version—how the escape attempt by sea was made, the killing, and the return of the patrol boat to port. Did you suspect at the time that this event might not be true?
It was a dubious event. Even then, there were voices that did not accept the official version and made you think that something didn’t add up. We heard that when the ship returned, it didn’t enter the port, but came in via “Dajlan Bridge,” which means that whoever was steering it was not a professional. They say that when the motorboat returned, gunshots were heard. They even say that one of them hadn’t died but was wounded.
For the construction of the script, they spoke with the “hero” himself, Spiro Kote. Did you have the chance to meet him?
Yes, I met him, and he made the event seem even more dubious to us. He seemed like a strange man. He wouldn’t say anything. We would ask him how the event happened, how he had managed to kill the sailors and the captain, but he wouldn’t tell a story from start to finish.
The only thing he would say was: “Slice the first one, slice the second one, and slice the third one.” At the time we met him, he was an officer; imagine that when the event happened, he was even younger, more inexperienced… How could he have managed to kill those people?!
What do you think might have been the version closest to the truth?
There have always been words about the truthfulness of this event, but it remained a very secret story. It is said that the sailors killed each other over smuggling/business issues, and probably Spiro was left with the motorboat “in his hands,” and when he arrived at port, Spiro was initially put in prison.
And then they made him a “Hero”…?!
Yes, yes, they declared him a “Hero.” The propaganda of the time demanded it. That’s how it happened with many ordinary people, who were lined up among the ranks of heroes. Whenever the party needed one, they would bring out a hero, a teacher, a soldier, etc.! But, in this particular case, in the film, the story was subjected to the creative process, first by screenwriter Nasho Jorgaqi and then by director Dhimitër Anagnosti.
Today, do you feel “good” about having played a “negative” role?
You know, negative roles were very popular at that time because they had the freedom to say things that others also thought but had no opportunity to express. So negative characters were more sympathetic than even the heroes, who were mostly schematic.
“The Silent Duel” was born on the ship commanded by Spiro Kote
“The Silent Duel,” the film, just like the event on which it was based, was born at sea. It was no longer a motorboat, but a ship commanded by Officer Spiro Kote. He was precisely the “Hero of the People,” who killed a captain and two sailors who were trying to escape with a motorboat—the only vessels that the Albanian navy had inherited from the past. It was the time when writers were circulated through work fronts, alongside the working class…
While Luan Qafëzezi was assigned to the Albanian aviation, the writer Nasho Jorgaqi, who by then had become famous for his novel “Mimosa’s Love,” was assigned to the Naval Warfare Fleet. For three years in a row, the writer would stay among sailors, on ships, from Durrës, to Vlorë, Orikum, and Sazan, assigned to write about the navy. And indeed, he found the story on that very ship.
The event had happened in 1947 and had caused quite a stir at the time. Spiro Kote was declared a “Hero of the People,” the first post-war hero, decorated by Mehmet Shehu himself. Mark Ndoja would dedicate a poem to him, while newspapers dedicated articles and interviews to him. Even after 20 years, the event continued to resonate.
And from a “port” story, it was subjected to a creative process, being elevated to an artistic level, scene by scene, by screenwriter Jorgaqi and director Dhimitër Anagnosti, who is said to have “competed” with his colleagues Kristaq Dhamo and Viktor Gjika to be able to work on it. As the filmmakers themselves, as well as the actors, say, Spiro Kote did not have the profile given to him in the film, embodied by actor Rikard Ljarja.
He is described as a man who did not speak much, a simple man who did not exhibit any high level of intelligence, who, at the time the event happened, had simply been a guard sailor, but who later studied in Moscow, at the Naval Academy…! The film, which was released in 1967, with a selected cast of actors such as Ndrek Luca, Reshat Arbana, Rikard Ljarja, and Bujar Kapexhiu, made Spiro Kote even more famous, while as for the truthfulness of the events, he took that with him to the grave. / Memorie.al
