Conversation with the well-known director Vladimir Kasa and the dream of escaping to America!

Conversation with the well-known director Vladimir Kasa and the dream of escaping to America

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By: Kozeta Zylo

I would like to start the conversation with you about the art-loving public with your childhood, what are the memories during this period and what place do they occupy in your memory? Have your childhood dreams come true and were those dreams the catalyst for you to connect with the art world?

I entered the magical world of art quite by accident. In 1968, I continued my last year at Puka High School, forced to help my brother’s family, who had moved there. I came from the “Qemal Stafa” Gymnasium in Tirana, and understandably I faced a boring reality. Shkodran director Edmond Mëhilli, newly appointed to the Pukë culture house, offered me a role in the drama “Shadows of the Night” by playwright Vedat Kokona. I accepted it with pleasure, thinking that it broke the dull, cold days, because I had never participated in such artistic activities. The role was very beautiful and carried almost the entire face. I started working with a crazy passion on my own. This job did so much for me, that in the performance we gave for the public I had a tremendous success. And so after a month we went to Elbasan to the festival of amateur troupes, where I received the gold medal as the best actor of the festival and I was offered to enter the Academy of Arts, drama branch. That’s how I took my first steps in the class of professor Mihallaq Luarasi, to whom I am grateful for his support in my departure with studies in Romania. After finishing the second year of the drama department, together with a group of students, I went to study in Romania at the Academy of Theater and Film “ION LUCA CARAGIALE”, Bucharest.

You are a well-known director in the world of Albanian cinematography, what are some of the important national films you have made?

The feature film “New Shelter” directed by V. Kasaj and S. Pecani. Kinostudio “Shqiperia e Re”. 1976. Feature film with two series “The days that brought spring” directed by V.Kasaj. RTSH, 1978. Feature film with two series: “The flame of the mountains” directed by V. Kasaj. RTSH, 1980. Feature film “Mining Engineer”, directed by V, Kasaj. RTSH, 1981. Kino Comedy “Black Can”, directed by V. Kasaj. RTSH, 1984. Cinema Comedy “Open your black eyes” directed by V. Kasaj. RTSH, 1984. Feature film with two series: “Reconstruction” directed by V.Kasaj, winner of the Aleksandër Moisiu Grand Prize at the Tirana Film Festival, as the best film of the year. RTSH, 1986

During the filming, you had national actors who were very popular with the public, what are some of the most spicy moments that you would remember and what more specifically?

I loved my profession madly, and working at RTSH, from the structure I can compare it with the newspaper, we had connected our lives with it and did not know the schedule. I performed dozens of teledramas with the National Theater, the “Migjeni” theater, Shkodër, the “Aleksandër Moisiu” theater in Durrës, the one in Korça or Elbasan and Fier, as well as the big change of years concert in 1980, 1982, 1984, 1987, since the size was the most important production of the year. Hundreds of comedy shows or outdoor concerts, with our best comedians and amazing singers from my country. I had the privilege of working with the cream of Albanian art, for whom I have fond memories. I would like to single out comedians such as Luftar Paja, Tano Banushi, Skënder Sallaku, Aleko Prodani, Ceke, Zef Dede, Gezim Krujë, Fadi Hasa, or the parodists of Fier and Vlora. Our wonderful singers, Vaçe Zela, Gaqo Cako, Avni Mula, Zeliha Sina, Ema Qazimi, Luan Zhegu, Parashqevi Simaku and hundreds of others, please forgive me for not being able to mention them in these few lines. Dedicated and pious people. I remember during the shooting of the big New Year’s concert in 1984, shooting on the stage of the Academy of Arts, at 03:40 in the morning, where V.Zela was supposed to come to sing. We sent the car to take her home and she came. She was laughing at us, because she called us night owls… – Well, you don’t fall asleep on the control panel? She sang with that wonderful voice, even though we turned her around several times… When she was leaving, she said to me: “Put your hand on my forehead.” It was very hot. “I was with 39 all day, continued the artist”. She laughed and left. On one of these tiring nights, the general director of RTSH, Marash Hajati, asks me. I left the assembly and went. How is the work with the film you shot in Cakran in Fieri, he told me? I was surprised because I didn’t understand what he was talking about… -Did you get a donkey that Luftar Paja rode in? – Yes, I told him… – You should remove it from the film, that the grassroots organization of the village has been set up and sent a letter to the Central Committee, as the donkey belongs to a declasse… You can laugh… but the donkey was removed and forced us to re-edit the film watching every frame so that the head does not come out or defecate somewhere outside the frame.

Do you have some photos with the legend of the National Theater Kadri Roshin, what was the collaboration with him and the theme that the actor liked the most as well as the messages he conveyed to you in the first place and then to millions of art lovers who watched with pleasure?

My love was cinema. I had a lot of dreams and came with a time information from my studies in Romania. I felt this at work with my colleagues, with the actors and with the film making team. I was very demanding at work and I was primarily looking for discipline, because I noticed a kind of indifference to technique. The film is collective art and if all the links do not work perfectly, it affects its artistic side. I had created these relationships with the actors, for whom I want to emphasize that I had the good fortune to work with the giants of the performing arts such as Kadri Roshi, Robert Ndrenika, Ndrek Luca, Roza Anagnosi, Reshat Arbana, Serafin Fanko, Sander Prosi, Sulejman Pitarka, Bep Shiroka etc. I was very young in age and working with them taught me a lot. Often on the set, many things were stuck for one reason or another, but thanks to the experience and wisdom of these great actors, I made a second school, that of acting. Only with work and only dedicated work, I was formed as an artist. This was the best lesson I received from these great actors…

Among the national historical figures, have you ever thought of making a film about Ali Pasha Tepelena and for which actor do you think it would be most suitable? The city of Tepelena itself, the nearby castle, the narrow streets, the river Vjosa and the wooden bridge that connects the city to other places are a magical inspiration for artists, what is your opinion?

I am from Tepelena and luckily I lived there for two years. I always admire this place in my memories because there really were things there beyond imagination. As Cavoi’s son, as my friends had nicknamed me, I felt comfortable and quickly adapted to them. I was a sporty type and became a member of the basketball team with Minatori e Tepelena, which participated in the second category. I met many wonderful people who worked dedicatedly as lecturers, sportsmen or artists, with whom I have kept in constant contact, and in this context there was no way to pass without feeling the figure of Ali Pasha Tepelena. At that time, there were many legends that we wanted to touch on the ruins of the castle, such as the tunnel that connected the castle to the village of Damës (that’s what was said at that time among us)… It passes under Vjoses, they said, and we who didn’t leave a trace without searching, or whatever relic that we found and kept as a talisman because we thought it brought us luck. Often when I would go to class unprepared, I would pray to a fortune teller I found in the castle not to get up for class, and surprisingly it worked. That’s how Ali Pasha was mythologized to me and I felt compelled to do something for him. And the moment came when I read Kico Blushi’s novella “Severed Head”. I had browsed a lot about it, but this stuck with me and I started sketching the first sequences. On a beautiful day when we were shooting the movie “RECONSTRUCTION” with my friend, the great actor Kadri Roshi, we went fishing in the open sea. I threw it as an idea. He saw me and got excited… I knew immediately that he was excited by the thought of playing the role of this great man… I told him that I wanted to put him in the Porto Palermo castle in terms of exterior shots… I started talking to him all the time that I the plantain of inspiration had entered and after letting me speak without interrupting me, he grabbed my hand and with shining eyes said to me: “Perhaps I will be lucky enough to play it as long as I live”. …But neither he nor I had the opportunity to make this historic film, the first of this magnitude. The democratic changes of 1991 finally destroyed our dream… You say, whoever prevents you, do it now!… Don’t forget that film is an industry and with the financial possibilities of our country it is absurd to think about it.

The movie “Poppies on the Walls” is one of the movies with the most viewers, where you closely cooperate with the famous director Dhimitër Anagnosti, what are some of the difficulties you had in making this movie with brilliant actors like Kadri Roshi, etc.?

The collaboration with the director Dhimitër Anagnosti in the film “Poppies on the Walls” was very concrete, as I was involved in the selection of the children’s troupe of the orphanage. About 500 students from different schools in Tirana had to be selected from which that small group of wonderful actors came out. Working with the child actors brought me closer to them, since I myself was at a young age and moreover, the script of the film had made me alone, and as Taqo also expressed (that’s what they used to say to Dhimitri), we found each other. I brought to this film that energy and artistic accumulation acquired in the Romanian school, which for the sake of truth I can say was world-class and really taught the ABC of cinema. What I admired about Taqo was his discipline and dedication to work, not to mention his many years of experience in cinema. Dhimitri had graduated from the Russian camera school, and this gave him a great advantage in the construction of mise-en-scenes, while I introduced into the children’s play exactly those idiosyncrasies of my childhood. At work, I have always sought to get into the psychology of the character by enriching it from my own life, in order to always say something new and avoid repeating boring clichés. Of course, this combination between my personal freedom gained during the years of studying abroad and Dhimitri’s rational logic, changed many episodes from the original script, making an iconic film of Albanian cinematography. We shot with Kadri Roshi the episode where the children tie a string to the stairs to take revenge on him. We got a circus acrobat to do the stunt in the fall down the stairs. I watched Kadri coming around the atelier and for a moment he took me aside, telling me that he wanted to make the obstacle on the stairs himself, but I told him that he would kill himself and that his age wouldn’t allow it. No, no, he told me! I told Taqo, and after he hesitated for a few moments, we entered the shoot. That acrobatic fall made by Kadriu was done several times and it was his fault that it did not achieve what we wanted. In the fourth double, we closed it successfully and we all went to congratulate Kadri. Come here, he said, ushering me behind the quintessence. He lifted his shirt and showed me his bruised and swollen back. I was very sorry. He ate you b… I told him and hugged him. In the history of Albanian film, I cannot leave without mentioning this wonderful cast of actors without whom the beautiful necklace of cinematography could not be completed.

You are the director of the film “The Flame of the Mountains” with a very interesting and intriguing theme, what was your job specifically and how did you collaborate with the actors and residents of the areas where you shot the film?

The film “The Flame of the Mountains” I can say without fear that it was the most difficult film in my career. I had thought of placing it in the area of the Great Highlands for the ruggedness and the amazing beauty it carried on its own, so we stationed ourselves in Selce, near Vermoshi, in the coldest period of the year, where the snow was over a meter. From the first days, I understood how difficult it would be for us to make the film, and it really happened. The cars wouldn’t start because of the cold, the camera batteries (the film was shot electronically) didn’t last and discharged quickly, and many other troubles that today when I remember them scare me, but they say that passion for work makes you forget everything. Under these conditions, I am forced to move to Shkodër and set the film in its surroundings in Bogë, Koplik, Leqet e Hoti, for shooting outside and Shkodër, all the interiors in real environments. But this required me to change everything in the technical-directorial scenario. He who is a professional understands better than anyone who says. I worked all night on the script to be ready on the set the next day. The film echoed the events of the uprising of 1911, in the Great Highlands, but I wanted to emphasize the freedom-loving spirit of the Albanians to increase national consciousness in Kosovo, since the first movements for independence had started there. Ndrek Luca was in the main role, this great actor, he had been familiar with the script for a long time and, unlike the others, he worked in detail with the character, wearing the garb of the dukagina mountaineer from where he originated. The ensemble of actors was completed with the troupe of the “Migjeni” Shkodër Theater, with whom I had collaborated in the film “The Days That Brought Spring” and I knew the characters of each one very well. What happened later when the film was approved for public viewing is sad, because many episodes were removed on the grounds that it alluded to the events in Kosovo, and understandably it hurt me as if a part of my body had been removed. But the most painful for me as a creator was the destruction of the horror episode of Vajtoca, which in my concept was a real Homeric spectacle with colossal values of the Albanian tradition which time has assimilated today. The film really had a great echo in Kosovo and the diaspora, as well as the rest of the world, and for me there was no greater appreciation than the congratulations I received from everywhere.

Today, many Albanian films are under construction, did you welcome this law? What exactly do you change from the previous films and why, while the story is the story and let it be with all the truth it carries?

Albanian film is experiencing a difficult situation in many directions. In the first place and which in my opinion is financial, because the fund allocated from the state budget for the national film center is negligible, almost ridiculous and secondly, today we do not have cinema halls which are or are not 3- 4 such. This phenomenon does not happen only here, today there are countries in Europe with a tradition and many times more powerful than us, which has a marked decline in feature films. I think that the introduction and great progress that is happening in electronics, such as televisions, is challenging the cinema day by day and that the most important one, Hollywood, this giant of the world cinematography has concentrated around itself the cream of the actors in the world and turned it into the most profitable industry. I see on our TV screens that our films are broadcast almost every day and are followed very attentively by young people, although in a pirate way, since there are very few TVs that pay their dues to our association for the protection of authors’ rights. I have heard that there is a project for the digitization of state TV and I would be very happy if the entire archive of this TV (the one that is left) could be archived like one of my films The Days That Brought Spring (2 series) which mounted on American AMPEX tape recorder, cannot be broadcast, as this type of equipment is no longer in use. You want to know and rightly ask questions about the difference between these two eras. The communist system at the time when these films were made, invested a lot in the ideological side even though people lived in misery. The main orientation in the field of art such as film, music or theater was the false presentation of that reality and the ideological limitations of socialist realism. Many of you do not know that the approval of a film to be shown to the public was done by a committee that came from the central committee who had no idea where the film came from. This is what happened with the movie “Flaka e Maleve” or “Poppies on the Wall” where if you notice an episode like: “the gathering of the communist cell” looks like a boil in the movie and motivated the role of the party in the orphanage… Funny. This paradox today seems very distant, but those of us who experienced it cannot easily forget it, or what terrified me was the fact that after the father’s son was killed somewhere on the border…, the father declared… party”!… Of course, this parent knew deep down in his soul about the tragic loss…

Is director Vladimir Kasa hostage?

Do I have any collateral? It is a question that I will give three answers to, since I have not published them before. In July 1982, I married a very beautiful pianist from a family of respected professors named Valbona Kasaj (Shehu), today a renowned teacher at the Artistic High School “Jordan Misja”, Tirana. Fate brought us two artists together for life, a woman concertist and full of dreams for her future and I who had started my journey in cinematography. Faced with this reality, it is understood that one of us both had to sacrifice and withdraw from his dream to deal with children, since the first gift of God were the two miracles, Alba and Flori. I am indebted to Vabona and honestly I have been a hostage all my life for the sacrifice made, giving me the opportunity to devote myself to the profession. She educated and raised two children of whom we are proud, and with an extraordinary will grew professionally in the pedagogical field, laying the foundations of a new piano school, which brought whole generations of pianists who debut today on the American and European stages. The other hostage is related to my trip to Rome-Italy in 1989 to buy films on behalf of RTSH. After work, where we watched dozens of films and went to the “site” nearby in the Italian production studio, in the evening with our friends, we went to the artists’ club, which was located in a very beautiful neighborhood of Rome, to drink some coffee. There I had the opportunity to meet, among others, the great Italian writer A.Moravia, but what I want to single out is the meeting with the talented and well-known director Francesco Nuti at that time. We discussed for a long time together about Italian cinematography, about the constellation of inimitable actors, about the Italian school of cinema that brought a revolution in the world of art, and many, many other topics that I was curious about since my youth and of course we then returned them. eyes for Albanian cinematography which he did not know at all. I spoke with passion because I had something to show and say, raising the values of our directors and actors. At the end of the conversation, I came out to my creativity, telling him that already in this history of Albanian cinema, the eight artistic films made by me were also listed. I saw that he looked at me in surprise. The very young man told me about such a large production and after a pause he laughed adding…”You must be very rich”! I didn’t speak and I was reminded of when I was a student in Romania. In the second year of school, I had the idea to escape to America since the possibility of escape was very easy. I began to grind this idea in my head more and more, but I did not dare to talk about it with anyone. I had started to have emotions and was falling asleep very late at night. That very year, while walking the streets of Bucharest with my two friends, the well-known pianist Nora Cashku and the talented violinist Rajmonda Koço (wife of the conductor Eno Koço), I suffered an acute perforation in the stomach that, thanks to my friends, ended up in the emergency department of the nearest hospital . I had not suffered from a stomach ailment as I enjoyed a very athletic health, and I think that the very idea of my escape constantly created a queasy feeling at the bottom of my stomach. Nay, I was operated on and everything went well and after two days our consul came to me by car to go to the embassy where my family was very worried and wanted to make sure if I was okay. I started talking to my mother who was just crying…crying…crying…! I loved that wonderful man madly, and as we were finishing the conversation he said to me like that: “I miss you son, I can’t wait to see you”! That night I didn’t sleep at all… I could see the face of my mother, father, brothers and sisters… I thought about my escape… I thought about the consequences my family would have… I thought about my mother… I would put them all in the pit… This was the hostage the last one I never told the man, but that night with Francesco Nuti it came to my mind and I realized it at once…

What did the changes that happened in Albania after 91 bring to the life of Vladimir Kasaj?

At that time we were confused and the first thing that came to my mind was that I wanted to be in Romania after a few years, for the sole reason that I had nostalgia for my school years and most importantly to meet my friends, who from 1974 knew nothing luckily for me, because the departure of all the Albanian students was done in a mysterious and secret way, that as we learned later, we were in danger of becoming a contingent of foreign agencies, and such. Think what a sham and what the communist regime was able to fabricate! So one cold night in March, without anyone’s knowledge, they gathered us and started us towards Tirana. I was very excited when I returned to Bucharest. It seemed to me that nothing had changed. Although I had not used the language at all during these years, I spoke it perfectly. Think of suddenly falling in love with someone, after having worked together for years, or with a broken heart, you leave without a hint of politeness, not even shaking their hand. Truly unforgettable moments, hugs. But what I want to emphasize was the fact that in those days I got to know an Americanized Romanian named Vasile Boleanu and we exchanged phone numbers (of course home numbers because we didn’t know the cell phone yet). This man worked for an American TV station. Not even three months passed when this person called me from the border of Qafë Thana and begged me to go pick him up as he had come with a film crew and was afraid to travel through Albania. We always talk about the 92s when the situation was really chaotic. I do not intend to dwell on the hospitality and security I created for this man and the film crew. We made two feature-length documentary films thanks to my opportunities and acquaintances. I put it in and it shot to its heart’s content. He collected soldiers’ and policemen’s hats, military uniforms and helmets, and even a piece of the already fallen bronze statue of Stalin that was placed in front of Dajti Hotel, as he told me, there was a very interesting personal museum there in America. As it seems, I liked this friend with my work, because the realization of the documentaries was made thanks to the many years of work and experience that I already had. I came with the idea, Vladimir told me not to hurt you all your life… It was the beginning of an unknown path for us and we sincerely believed in some miracle. We created the company “Technical Media Cooperation”, he the president and I the vice president of the company with the perspective of setting up a private TV that would work on behalf of an American channel where he worked. An idea that had occurred to me since the beginning of the democratic changes and I was working on it in my head. Even when I discussed it with my colleagues, they looked at me with surprise, since it was the time when the market economy and I was the first to talk about it, they called me a clown, an ugly word, but this was the communist concept of that time. It was left to the Americanized Romanian to send a camera and a tape recorder, as there were no shortage of wonderful operators here, and to deal with various news of the region, which at that time was boiling over. Not to bore you, the dream continued until the moment he sold the films at a staggering value for his time and became more alive. Dear reader, if someone has the chance to meet this man somewhere in America, tell him that with the idea he had and less expenses in the events that happened in Albania, like in 1997 and Kosovo, he would provide news that would ‘tenfold his wealth, if he was like that and I would have one of the most powerful media, when private TV here started after 10 years of delay. So disappointed I thought to survive seeing that the work on Albanian TV and the feed of anonymous militants as well as the ridiculous salary to cope with life forced me to find other ways outside my profession, but honest ways! And in these last lines, I would like to thank you, Mrs. Kozeta, for giving me the opportunity to return after many years to the magic of the seventh art where I had put my life and my dream. Really painful confession as you put it, but think of a life left in the middle and an ingratitude for what we raised with so much love and sacrifice. You can say that you are to blame for the total disconnection from the profession. I too have asked this question to myself and honestly this thought has bothered me for a long time, but I am not the only one among the Albanian filmmakers who faced such a reality. The motives are numerous and I don’t intend to list them here, but I know to tell them that for all the sacrifice and aesthetic values I gave to my country, today I receive a pension of 70 dollars… Truly tragic comic… I do not regret everything I did, I feel strong and energetic and with a clear mind as in those years, but now with the maturity of age and an artistic accumulation, God willing, some miracle happens… And miracles do happen…

June 2016 Staten Island, New York Interviewed by: Kozeta Zylo.

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Albanian Cinematography in activity since 2013

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