Vietnam from Above
In a world very similar to today's North Korea, in Socialist Albania, everything ought to be perfect: a real life implementation of the communist society. A dark world neither acknowledged nor reporte…
Vietnam from Above
In a world very similar to today's North Korea, in Socialist Albania, everything ought to be perfect: a real life implementation of the communist society. A dark world neither acknowledged nor reported by the propaganda machine. Until now Albania had a special twist compared to the rest of the eastern communist countries: a paranoid dictator, Enver Hoxha. Hoxha built an extremely efficient propaganda machine and a fearful secret security police, SIGURIMI, which during 45 years of his reign suppressed religion, the right of an attorney, any kind of diverse opinion other than his own. He vowed to build a society free of all the vices of capitalism: free of drugs, prostitution, crime, pornography, sex offenders, gays, illegal gambling, abortions, etc. Nude paintings were considered immoral and even kisses were considered too sexual for the propaganda machine, so they also got cut off from the few foreign movies that got through to the Albanian audience. On surface, this was a quiet society where nothing happened. No crime was ever reported. No sex deviation ever happened. No gays existed. No abortion. The prostitutes never made it to the news. Nobody knew what drugs were - propaganda made Coca Cola be known as a bad capitalist drug. Every citizen seemed to lead a "clean" life: you finished school,went to the army, married, got a job, had kids, never moved town once you got a job until you died. Underground though, everything was happening. Through reconstructed stories,real testimonies and archived documents, most of this hidden part of Socialist Albania will come to light. Ordinary people, officers of the secret police and party's apparatus will bring to life secrets buried long ago which were never made public lest acknowledged to exist. —Koloreto Cukali
Vietnam from Above
Documentary
Film Details
In a world very similar to today's North Korea, in Socialist Albania, everything ought to be perfect: a real life implementation of the communist society. A dark world neither acknowledged nor reported by the propaganda machine. Until now Albania had a special twist compared to the rest of the eastern communist countries: a paranoid dictator, Enver Hoxha.
Hoxha built an extremely efficient propaganda machine and a fearful secret security police, SIGURIMI, which during 45 years of his reign suppressed religion, the right of an attorney, any kind of diverse opinion other than his own. He vowed to build a society free of all the vices of capitalism: free of drugs, prostitution, crime, pornography, sex offenders, gays, illegal gambling, abortions, etc. Nude paintings were considered immoral and even kisses were considered too sexual for the propaganda machine, so they also got cut off from the few foreign movies that got through to the Albanian audience.
On surface, this was a quiet society where nothing happened. No crime was ever reported. No sex deviation ever happened.
No gays existed. No abortion. The prostitutes never made it to the news.
Nobody knew what drugs were - propaganda made Coca Cola be known as a bad capitalist drug. Every citizen seemed to lead a "clean" life: you finished school,went to the army, married, got a job, had kids, never moved town once you got a job until you died. Underground though, everything was happening.
Through reconstructed stories,real testimonies and archived documents, most of this hidden part of Socialist Albania will come to light. Ordinary people, officers of the secret police and party's apparatus will bring to life secrets buried long ago which were never made public lest acknowledged to exist. —Koloreto Cukali.