Vera Zheji (1933 – 2024) | Commemorative!

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Vera Zheji (1933-2024)
“Zonja Zeri” or well-known in the role of Aunt Sandra in the excellent comedy “Rain on the Beach”.
Announcer, actress of theater and cinematography as well as former lecturer of artistic speech at ILA.

The beloved voice of fairy tales on Radio Tirana, life and profession, her unfulfilled passion and the need to survive… “Half of a person’s life is spent remembering the things he has used, the places he has been, the people he has met, the voices he has heard At this point, we are a bit like reptiles that until we get old we leave our skin to the soil and thorns several times” – VERA ZHEJI.

Born on January 30, 1933. Her family comes from Zagoria. She was of the opinion that the Zheji family was “selected”. Despite the contribution they made to culture, Zheji, Vera, Gjergj and undoubtedly Petro Zheji, had their father’s political shadow over them.

Vera worked as an announcer at Radio Tirana for 27 years. She started work on February 12, 1948, at the very young age of 15. A high school competition was held at that time, no one could get into the microphone, either from the professional side or from the side of natural selection.

Vera had to read a fragment from the history book, the revolutions of 1848 in Europe. And across from her was an Italian engineer who was still working in Albania and 2-3 others who heard her saying: this girl has a good voice. In all that crowd of competitors she won. And here’s the impact with the public…the broadcast was live, then there were no recordings. She reads an excerpt about a heroine of the Soviet Union.

In the studio, the first announcer of Albania, Kaliopi Nushi, was also listening. She also gave him pleasure by telling her bravo, bravo, you read it well. From that day she became an announcer on Radio Tirana.

Her first shows were youth shows. “In that period, life passed, adolescence passed, youth passed, all, all, all.” she will express herself, some time ago then, within the work, various shows that she founded “The World of Fairy Tales”, “Popular University of Radio”, “Encyclopedia of Radio” and several others, were made thanks to the unique way of reading not only the news, but also for cultural things.

She let all to the authors, to the characters, to the world of fairy tales, to the bird, to the chicken, to the rooster, to the cat, to the dog, and she found herself more comfortable. She was the best in her creativity. That in the end, for Vera Zheji, being an anchor is creativity, and it is a difficult creativity.

To be an announcer you must have a natural talent – the main one is the voice. God gives it. You must also have a cultural level, definitely. When you get on the microphone you have to respect even a single listener. Not talking about yourself but talking about them.

The important thing is to convey exactly what they give you and with the greatest clarity of speech. Every word within the sentence has the right to live. She has always thought that there should be a school for speaking on the microphone.

Oh! The nostalgia of the afternoons once upon a time with the voice on the microphone: “Dear children, we are starting your fairy tale.” Surely every little one, 30-40 years ago, will have felt as if the voice was addressed to him or her …….

1975, Vera Zheji finally leaves Radio and thanks to the approval of the director Nefo Myftiu, she became a lecturer of artistic speech in the theater branch, at the Institute University of Arts, until 1988 when she retired.

Then Zheji worked on Mayakovsky’s play “Banja” prepared by Kujtim Spahivogli in the theater inside the Institute, a play that was condemned, while Spahivogli’s fate took a turn.

After the nineties, she emigrated to Greece. Vera felt a debt towards the future of his daughter, Lea Plumbi, who, as the granddaughter of Spiro Zheji, had been transferred to Gramsh in 1982. On her own initiative, she has selected 60 fairy tales. Tales and fables by Naim Frashëri, adaptations by La Fonten and Çajupi, by Nonda Bulka, her teacher.

In 2008, she returned to recording at Radio Tirana. Happened to realize a poetic evening with Fishta’s once forbidden poems, a masterpiece like “Albanian language” that she was never able to read with the students.

At the end of her career, she would have wanted a little economy to open a private theater together with 5-6 colleagues like Robert Ndrenika to develop her skills as an actress, and if she had the courage, to once play Brecht’s Mother Courage and the mother of Hamlet, the unfortunate Queen Gertrude, the role of the heart.

Zheji, if she still had the courage, would write “My life on the microphone” where she would talk about the profession she has been doing for the longest time in her life, a job that in Albania of that time had a strong political relationship, she would also talk for those dear colleagues, “big reactionaries” like Haki Bejleri, or like herself, Vera Zheji.

What about Vera’s passion?
“More than passion, it was the need to eat. My passion has been the theater, which I could never realize. And in the event that I, apparently, have become a good announcer, while the people respect me – I owe a lot to my people – I became so because of that passion I had to become an actress. The new generation cannot understand the natural selection of that time. If I was indispensable on the radio, as they said – no one is irreplaceable but indispensable – in the theater I was not so indispensable. There were other people, other actresses.”

However, she will be remembered as Sandra with short gray hair in the comedy “Rain on the Beach”, a role that served as a kind of passport. Vera Zheji has also appeared in two or three other episodic roles, such as in the play “Teacher of Literature”; the films “And one day comes”; “My family” etc.

It may be a coincidence, but the interesting fact is that in all the parts where she performed the role, she had the actress Elvira Gjata – Bahiti by her side.

The artist passed away on August 17, 2024

Published for the Facebook page in June 2014 and revised in subsequent years

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Albanian Cinematography in activity since 2013
Reference: Online newspaper “Shekulli” (2008). 

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