By Dashnor KALOÇI
Memorie.al/ publishes a correspondence of official letters from 1976, where the Party Committees of Korça and Tirana communicate with the cabinet of the Secretary of the Central Committee of the ALP, Ramiz Alia, after a letter that a veteran from the village of Lubonjë in Korça had sent to the top leadership, where he complained about how it was possible that in the movie “Coping”, which had just started to appear in cinemas, the role of the first secretary, Martin, who was also the main and positive character of the movie, was entrusted to the actor Bujar Lako, whose father during the National Liberation War had been with the forces of the National Front with Safet Butka….?!
That distant winter of 1975, after months and months of very tiring filming, as he finished the last dub of his role in the film “Facing”, (Martini, the party secretary of the Korça district), the famous actor Bujar Lako would never have imagined that all that extremely exhausting work with shooting at temperatures a few degrees below zero, in some of the deepest villages of Korça, could have gone all the way and not had no value, as all the pelicans with his role would end up in the trash and from there to the fire pile. In fact, this would be the smallest and most fortunate evil for him, as easily from a well-known cinematographer, he could end up as a simple worker in a construction company away from Tirana, in a lost circle, or in the best case as a mass in any Cultural Center, of any remote village who knows where. And the evil would not end here, because “for his sake”, neither the director of the film, Viktor Gjika and the screenwriter Teodor Laço, who together with the director of the film, had trusted him, would have escaped peacefully, without any measures. actor Lako the main role, that of the Party secretary. But all these, that is, the troubles and vicissitudes that would fall on his head, without any guilt, the famous actor Lako, who held the title “Merited Artist” since 1985, and for years one of the stars of Albanian cinema, ironically, in his lifetime he never learned the truth about this letter…?!.
All that titanic work needed to make a film, where an entire state spared nothing, would be multiplied by zero, as the film would be banned and removed from circulation. And to the devil would be not only his grueling work as an actor for the role of Martin, but also everything else that had to do with the bleak future that awaited him. Why could the film “Confrontation” be banned, when it was liked and evaluated with superlatives not only by the directorate of Kinostudio and the Party organization of that institution, but in his address the praises had also started from the “comrades of the Leadership”, in The Central Committee of the ALP, which “put the stamp” and the film was given special permission to be shown to the general public ?! But even this, so the banning of the film could happen, even quite easily, as it was the “line of measures”, what could come out on the top leadership of the Party… ?! And that would be enough for… all the comrades of the Party in the district of Korça and in Tirana, up to the Central Committee, to be set in motion. And so it really happened, that hot July of 1976, when that letter of the veteran from the village of Lubonjë in Korça set in motion the Committees of the Parties of Korça and Tirana, which reported in official documents to the cabinet of Ramiz Alia, which at that time held the post of secretary of the Central Committee of the ALP and covered art and culture. For more about this, we are informed about the archival documents in question that Memorie.al publishes in full in this article.
LETTER OF VETERAN FROM LUBONJA FOR HIGH LEADERSHIP
Letter from veteran Z.K. from the village of Lubonjë in Korça, who complained about how it was possible that actor Bujar Lako was given a positive and leading role in the film “Confrontation”, is missing from the archive of the Central Committee of the ALP, as it was addressed to the Party Committee of Korça district, where most of the film was shot and where the actor Bujar Lako came from, from his father’s family. In that letter, veteran Z.K. may have marked “for the information of the Central Committee of the ALP”, which meant that the Committee of the Korça Party should have informed the Central Committee of the ALP in a cover letter. And all this has been done there since June 1976, shortly after that film was released in the district cinemas, since at the beginning of July, the Korça Party Committee (signed by the first secretary, Enver Halili) sends an official letter to the Committee of the Party of Tirana, from which Kinostudio “Shqipëria e re” also depended on party roads at that time. In the letter that we are publishing in full, it is written: ”
LETTER OF THE FIRST SECRETARY OF KORÇA FOR PIRRO KONDIN
ALBANIAN LABOR PARTY Ex. No ….
KORÇA DISTRICT PARTY COMMITTEE
Korça, on 2.7.1976
Nr. 596/1 Prot.
SUBJECT: Data on the biography of Bujar Lako are sent
TIRANA DISTRICT PARTY COMMITTEE
Explanation of your letter, no. 887. dated 19.5.1976
Regarding your request for the stay of Lako Health, the father of actor Bujar Lako, during the National Liberation War, we clarify as follows:
To verify the problems that you raise in your letter, we charged a group of friends, who after talking to some of the veterans of the district, went to the village of Lubonjë, where the family of Bujar Lako lived. From the conversation that took place with Telha Shtyllën, former secretary of the National Liberation Council of Lubonja, Fetah Saliu, who knew well Health during the war years, Rustem Kolaci, secretary of the basic organization of the Party in Lubonjë and Dhimitër Macuka, secretary of the bureau of the party of the Vithkuq cooperative, of which Lubonja is a part, concluded the following conclusions:
Health Lakua before and after the fascist occupation was a teacher in the area of Vithkuq. He was not an officer and commander of the pre-military, but often wore the uniform the government had given to some teachers.
After the founding of the Party, he became active through the National Liberation Movement (as well as his cousin, Riza Lako Lubonja), who works in Tirana and if you needed it, you can ask him about the Health activity. Even his lighthouse and tribe were all connected with the war.
After the creation of the National Front, Shëndeti went to Safet Butka’s gang, who was the groom in the lighthouse of their tribe. He stayed there for 2-3 months. It is not true that he was the commissar of the gang, because as Telha Shtylla says, at that time the commissar of Safet Butka’s gang was Syrja Qafëzezi.
After leaving Safet Butka, he came to his home in Lubonja, where there was no case of propaganda in favor of Balli and against the Party. Two weeks after his return to the family, his sister, Sultana Lako, partisan toast.
After staying for some time in Lubonja, he left for the city of Korça, where he took refuge with his family in the house of Abedin Shkëmbi, who was among the activists and sympathizers of the National Liberation War. It does not appear that he actively helped the War and took part in the assassination of the spies Et’hem Frashëri and Lefter Ruços, but as Llasko Vasili stated, he had seen the latter when he carried out the assassination attempt against Et-hem Frashëri, and although he knew her, he did not report her to the local authorities. It also does not stand the fact that Health, after the murder of Safet Butka, was appointed Deputy Police Commissioner. During the conversation with Lubonja’s friends, we were told that Mr. K. (in the letter the name and surname is complete), who aggravates it in his statement, as he mentions in your statement, did not go well with Lako Health’s family.
SECRETARY OF THE PARTY COMMITTEE, ENVER HALILI
LETTER OF TEA RUSMAL FOR PIRRO KONDIN
The letter of the first secretary of Korça, Enver Halili, explaining the biography of Bujar Lako’s father, arrived at the office of Çajup Rusmal in the Central Committee of the ALP, which covered the artistic institutions of Tirana, and he immediately sent it to Pirro Kondi , the first secretary of the Tirana Party Committee. The cover letter reads:
Sh. Pyro!
I am sending you the details of K.P. of Korça and the opinion of K.P. of Tirana for the actor Bujar Lako, who in the movie “Confrontation” has the role of party secretary.
We as a sector agree with the opinion of K.P. of Tirana.
- VII. 1976 Çajup Rusmali
PIRRO KOND LETTER FOR RAMIZ ALINE
The letter received from the Committee of the Party of Korça, where it is informed about the biography of the father of Bujar Lako, (Health Lako) has also arrived in the Committee of the Party of Tirana, in the office of Pirro Kondi, who immediately informed his superior, Ramiz Alia, by means of a letter which reads:
Comrade Ramiz Tirana,
13.VII. 1976
After the verification of the biography of Bujar Lako (actor of the People’s Theater, who tears the role of the party secretary in the film “Confrontation”), the official opinion of K.P. Korça, which is attached. Both here (asked Myslim Islami, employee at the M-L Institute, Riza Lubonja at the M.P.B., etc., who are from his village) and from Korça, we are told the same data. Being only 2 months in the beginning with S. Butka’s Balli gang is the hardest thing for his father. The others that were told to us (deputy quaestor and commissar of Safet Butka’s gang) are slander. The whole circle of his family, with a very good attitude. He himself has been criticized and condemned for “incorrect behavior”, because he made love to a girl, whose father did not want to marry him anymore and made noise on all fours. Some time later, without the wish of the father, he married his daughter and now “live happily and happily”.
If K.P. of Tirana and our sector, I think that these should not be an obstacle for him to play leading roles in films.
Specifically, the film “Coping”, since it has been made and has been done well, (if you want you can ask to see it) to be allowed to be shown to the public. We look forward to hearing from you as they inform you otherwise.
- 7. 1976 Piro Kondi
Tirana Committee: The film “Coping” to be released
The Tirana Party Committee agreed that the film “Përballimi” should be allowed to be released, but nevertheless, it seeks the approval of the Education and Culture sector in the Central Committee of the ALP. This can be seen from the cover letter of the second secretary, Sotir Kamberi, where it is written:
ALBANIAN LABOR PARTY Secret
PARTY COMMITTEE Copies no. 1
TIRANA, No.887 / 1 Prot. Tirana, 7.VII.1976
CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF ALP
(Education and Culture Sector) Tirana
Attached we are sending you the letter of the Party Committee of Korça, where according to our request are sent data on the biography of the actor of the People’s Theater, Bujar Lakos. On the verification and evaluation that the Committee of the Korça Party makes of the stay of Lako Health (Bujar’s father) during the National Liberation War, we are of the opinion that his biography does not constitute an obstacle for the non-circulation of the film “Coping”, in which Bujar has a key role. The film can circulate.
Secretary of K.P. of Tirana
Sotir Kamberi (company)
As can be seen from the above letter and all the other correspondence we published, it took the generosity and generosity of the first secretary of the Korça district, Enver Halili, to clarify the biography of the actor Bujar Lako’s father and the film “Coping” to be allowed circulated without any hindrance./Memorie.al
