Downtown Harvard Club Screens "Divorce Albanian Style"

NEWS RELEASE

FROM: Quo Vadis, 288 Newbury Street, Boston, MA 02115 /
Tel: 617 421-9494 / Fax: 617 421-0928 / www.quovadistravel.com

Contact: Roxana von Kraus / 617 421-9494 / quovadis@usa.org


DOWNTOWN HARVARD CLUB SCREENS “DIVORCE ALBANIAN STYLE” IN BOSTON

A Bulgarian film about the plight of Albanian men and women who married foreign nationals during the communist era in Albania.

BOSTON, July 24, 2010 – The Downtown Harvard Club in Boston presents “An Evening of Bulgarian Film.” Club Member Roxana von Kraus’ latest film presentation is “Divorce Albanian Style,” an award-winning Bulgarian film about the plight of Albanian men and women who married foreign nationals during the communist era in Albania. Directed and produced by Adela Peeva (Bulgaria, 2007, 66 min, in Albanian-Russian-Polish with English subtitles) and narrated by Ben Cross, award-winning British actor, “Divorce Albanian Style” reveals the tragic misfortune of thousands of Albanian families who were forcibly separated for marrying foreigners under the totalitarian regime of Albania’s Enver Hoxha. 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 for the communist regime’s actions was alleged “espionage.” While KGB-trained secret police were busy collecting “evidence”, minor clerks became “investigators”, carpenters were turned into prosecutors. 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.

With the advent of democracy, Bulgarian producer/director, Adela Peeva, made many award-winning films including “Born from the Ashes”, “Right to chose,“ “The Unwanted.” Peeva’s “Whose is this Song?” was nominated for the EFA’s “Best Documentary-Prix ARTE” 2003 award, shown at over 50 international film festivals, and awarded 16 prizes. “Divorce Albanian Style” was also nominated for European Film Academy’s Best Documentary-Prix “ARTE” in 2007 and has already garnered national and international awards.

Van Christo, who had sponsored the original screening of “Divorce Albanian Style” at the Rabb Auditorium of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 2008, will provide a brief Commentary about Bulgarian producer/director, Adela Peeva and the multi- award-winning screenings of “Divorce Albanian Style” at international film festivals. Christo is the founder of the Frosina Information Network, a non-profit Albanian immigrant and cultural resource in Boston.

“Divorce Albanian Style” will be shown at 5:30 pm on Tuesday, September 7, 2010, at the Downtown Harvard Club, One Federal Street, 38th Floor. in Boston. Reservations are required for this complimentary event. Call 617 542-2070.
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