EXCLUSIVE | Kin Jaku – Shiroka (1914 -1988), the silent artist, as we have never known him before!

Kin Jaku – Shiroka (1914-1988) Hairdresser, make-up artist of the Theater "Migjeni" Shkoder. EXCLUSIVELY Prologue Kin Jaku is undoubtedly a well-known name, especially for the Shkodran artist, while for the Albanian one, he is engraved in the memory of our cinematography with the only role, even like no other confirmed actor, that of a high officer Vermaht leading a motorcade of German troops in the film "Ambush" (1968), based on a true event from World War II in Albania, precisely the withdrawal of these troops that they were doing under the direction of Colonel Steyrer (Shtajrer) moving from Elbasan to Tirana in November 1944. And Kini is there in that 1968 film, in his role of life and with the masterful, classy interpretation, we would say without exaggeration, of a Hollywood actor, leaving his stamp on cinematography Albanian. However, until yesterday, Kin Jaku, the hairdresser and make-up artist of the theater "Migjeni" was one of those artists left in the "dust of oblivion", but…. Now this belongs to the past!!! The roots are there, facts and evidence passed down in that city with inexhaustible traditions and culture and which carries a history as old as humanity itself, once the epicenter of Illyria….and this is how this exclusive writing comes from father to son. of "Albanian Cinema" through which we want to bring the profile of the Shkodran artist that we have never known before, this thanks to the testimony of Berti, the son of the now deceased Kini, who inherited and took his father's craft even further and whom I sincerely thank for this opportunity. Maybe fate or maybe the name of our site, now with a 10-year online activity for the Albanian community of Artedash, and through the friends and collaborators that this site has, "K.SH", brought contact with Mr. Bert Shiroka, not only the son of the artist in question but also of the family of the well-known actor, the late Bep Shiroka, (Bert's grandfather and Bep's father were cousins). I Kin Jaku was born in Cetina, Montenegro on July 29, 1914 from an Albanian family from Shiroka. Kini's father, whose name was Filip Jaku, had emigrated and lived in Cetina practicing the profession of a barber, and had even managed to open his own shop there, a private business. Kini's mother, Agetina, was from Shkodra and from this relationship they had 5 children (three boys and two girls), where Kini was the eldest. Kini, after finishing high school in Cetina, goes to Sarajevo to a two-year hairdressing school. After finishing this two-year course, with his diploma in his pocket, he leaves for Zagreb, where he works for two years in the theater of Zagreb, precisely in his profession. When he returns to Sarajevo, he opens his own hairdressing shop, working there for a full 5 years. After this experience, he will return to his place of birth in Cetina, where he also opens a business, a hairdressing salon for women, very close to his father's barber shop. For a while, mother and son create a good welfare and Kini himself gets a name as a master in the area around…. Meanwhile, the Second World War breaks out and he joins it as a fighter of the 6th Montenegrin Brigade, and is even seriously injured in a battle in the area of Sanjak, staying in the hospital for several months. During his stay in the hospital, the war ends and Kini is informed that there was no one from his family in Cetina, but they tell him that they have been transferred to Shkoder. Around the age of 28, he will join his family in Shkoder. Kini's passions were painting, which he practiced and musical instruments such as guitar and violin, albeit modestly. At first, he worked for a while in Shkoder as a translator at a railway station. After the conviction of Koci Xoxes, based on the suspicions of the system of the time in power, comes the arrest of Kini, who is taken to the investigator in Tirana. For several months, nothing is known about his existence, but….then he is released, saying that it was just a misunderstanding! After his arrest in 1947, he decided to use two surnames, maybe they suggested him to identify himself differently because he was an immigrant from the former Yugoslavia and the relations with our country were broken, (however, not that the state security could save him this detail). This is how he used the surname Shiroka because he was related to the father of the great actor, Bepi, Kole Shiroken. However, the whole company and colleagues at work know him by the last name Jaku. This use of two surnames, as Berti also tells me, has caused quite a few problems in documents over time, and even today, Berti continues humorously, a court must be held to change the father's name in the light book… . II Kini had also opened his own private business in Shkoder, a hairdressing salon for women. With the creation of the first troupe of the "Migjeni" Theater (1949), Kini gave help and contribution to the theater from a craft that was rare at that time. Until 1958, he ran a private business, but he would appear as a make-up artist even before this year in professional theater shows. Thus, we find his name as a make-up artist in 1954 in the show "Toka e jone". Later, around the beginning of the 60s, when he was employed near this theater, he created the hairdressing sector professionally, working there until he retired around 1976 (however, the year is to be determined). However, he continued to work in the city's theater that had already become his own, until there from 1982-1983 with the play "Gjaku i Arberit" which was given about 180 times. After his separation, his son Berti now takes over the trade, to whom we will dedicate a section at the end of this article. Kini created his profile in "Migjeni" as a hairdresser and make-up artist, as such he appears in the organic of this theater in many shows, remaining loyal to his profession and his fellow actresses until the end. He is the founder of the hairdressing sector, entirely with his materials. Berti shows that even today he keeps some of those materials from his father's work as symbols. The performances of the theater "Migjeni" at that time, being classic works, (so not like any critical critic of today who maliciously testifies that such works from the world's classical dramaturgy were not allowed before the 90s), were overloaded by the hair salon and the position itself and the work that Kini did had a special importance. Until the beginning of the 60s, when he started working professionally in the theater, Kin Jaku can be recognized as the only one who worked with sets of wigs, beards, mustaches, toupees, braids, hair extensions for both men and women. . Later, others were sent to BS to learn this craft. This sector was so perfect that they came from other theaters in the districts to order for their needs in Shkoder from Kini. In the "Migjeni" theater, he constantly performed the transformation of the actresses with professionalism. The number of performances of the bright time in this theater ranged from 20 to 50 and there were cases up to 150 per year and the load was great to cope with. However, Kini, as a rare master in his craft, regardless of hard work and dedication, does not write his name in all the shows, even though the magic of the transformation he did looks like the evidence left in the photos of the actresses' time. As Berti himself tells me, this happened until late and it is not clearly understood why the technical work should be reduced when they cannot do the show without it. Small interests, advertising someone's name to attract the public? Berti touches it well here when he quotes: "…but advertising doesn't give you fame…work does". …and all of Kini's work, all of that contribution was forgotten without being mentioned not only in the flyers of many shows but also after his death!!! Kin Jaku was not a genuine actor, but he became active when he had the opportunity in very small roles or as an extra. One of the two roles he played in the theater of Shkodër was in the drama "The fifth was taken alive" on November 27, 1966, in the role of the saboteur. While for the other role, it was not possible to find… Hairdresser was the position he covered in the theater and makeup in his work has been complementary, because hair is the basis for the actor's figure in creating a character. It should also be noted that until the 80's he worked in all theater and variety shows in Shkodra. To make art at that time was known to be too difficult, it required sacrifice, solitude, but there was also the fear of doing it without being an "enemy of the people and the Party in power", of being a rotten pig, etc. Such problems have not happened to Kin, because until the change of the system there was a commission that controlled and gathered all the details before the show came out, which modified, edited, changed it if it did not seem suitable for the system and the responsibility the main one was the director, maybe even the actresses. The only thing that made Kini the "enemy of the class" was that he never went to the political news and yet they never worried about his absence, as it seems they respected his work and he was a master there, that's how they called him. The card of several shows that carry his signature as a hairdresser / make-up artist during the time period 1954 – 1983: "Toka e jone" (1954); "The Two Venetian Twins" (1959); "Nuria's Crown" (1959); "Nora" (1960); "History of Irkutsk" (1961); "The Lottery Ticket" (1963); "Zekthi" (1964); "Skenderbeu" (1968); "Council of Godfathers" (1969); "The Defeat" (1974); "The Deer of Drenice" (1978); "Song of proud pain" (1980); "Blood of Arber" (1983); III It is 1968! The director Mit`at Fagu is commissioned by Kinostudio "Alhqiperia e Re" to shoot the war film "Prita"…among some good actors from Shkodran who play in that film such as Ndrek Luca; Frederik Fistani, Sulejman Dibra, Kini also appears, and although in an episodic role (dubbed by the great Prokop Mima), dominates the screen with the interpretation he makes, the plastic, the movements that give the impression of a professional actor of the western school (no exaggeration) To the Albanian spectators and passionate followers of the film, the question circulated : Who is this actor who most realistically embodies the figure of a cold and heartless Nazi officer? Oh what a hit find!!! Mimicry and facial expression, movements and everything else create in the viewer the impression of a real character detached from the reality of war and placed in front of a movie screen. Well, that high Nazi officer is Kin Jaku, hairdresser and make-up artist of the "Migjeni" theater. How did Kin manage to become part of the staff of this film, among other things, he was not even an actor? During the conversation with Berti, this finding must have been accidental or maybe even recommended by someone for the honorable director Mr. Mit`hat Fagu. So it is a detail that continues to remain without a correct answer. What is known more accurately now is that Kini himself, being a reserved and closed guy and staying at home most of the time, was uncomfortable with the interpretation. Director M. Fagu is determined that no one can play that role more beautifully than Kini, as it turned out later! It seems that this stubbornness of the director M. Fagu filled Kini's mind, who later became a friend of the family, because he was a very good person, correct, cultured and educated to the maximum. He even wanted to offer an episodic role in the film to Berti, where a child brings water to the wounded partisan …. and Berti does not accept but today he regrets the refusal because he would have seen himself in the film alongside his father. The episode during the filming of the movie "Prita" The filming had started and was going quite well until the moment when something unexpected happened in the middle of the movie scenes. One day in the morning, a movie studio car arrived in Shkoder with a cinematographer and another member of the film staff to take Kini to the set. It was a cold and rainy day. Somewhere near Laci, the car leaves the road and falls down. All the men in the car have bad accidents, one in the column but Kini much more, 5 ribs and fractures in the shoulder, in the jaw and many head injuries!!! Everyone in the house is of course alarmed by this news and head to the hospital in Tirana where they find Kini in worse condition, plastered and bandaged. During his stay in the hospital for several months, he was visited from time to time by the exponents of the culture of that time, by the director Fagu himself and his friends and work colleagues. But the film was left in the middle and this was a big problem at that time because expenses had been incurred and it was known that the bill was sent by the state mainly to the director. After spending about 2 months in the hospital, Kini returned home, but he was not well and was still not recovering. The director M. Fagu often came to visit them and thus a friendship and mutual respect was born between them. For about 6 months, the film was interrupted and the work was bad even for the staff of the film "Prita". But even though Kini was not in a good condition, after that accident he decided to finish the role and the rest of the film. For the eyes of his son, Berti, and an attentive spectator, Kini can be seen in some scenes shot after the accident that he was not in a good condition. But the film ended and it was a success for a while, where Kini's interpretation caught the eye, which remained stamped as one of the most accomplished roles in Albanian cinematography, and the director Mit'hat Fagu, thanks to his persistence, patience and sacrifice, became a friend of the family You had it for a long time. Kin Jaku changed his life on June 17, 1988, just as he was quiet, quiet, correct, honest and noble. He left this life in silence, as all the great figures of the performing arts leave behind as evidence of their work, the undeniable contribution in this field for which the leaders of the art and culture institutions should not let them " are covered with the dust of oblivion, but remember them with honor and respect. VIDEO CLIP DEDICATED TO THE SILENT ARTIST KIN JAKU (1914-1988)

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IV In 1983, after his father, Berti inherited the further path in the trade of hairdressing and make-up at the "Migjeni" theater. Berti performed in Tirana and about a year later in v. 1999, in Rome, a specialization for this profession by choice and entirely at his own expense. As he himself says, few have come to work in the theater, which he continues today.

 Photo gallery of the hairdresser at the "Migjeni" Theater, Bert Shiroka!
 
   
 
    
   

P.Bj From a conversation with the artist's son, Mr. Bert Shiroka, whom we sincerely thank on behalf of the "Albanian Cinematography" page, for the information and time dedicated to the realization of this article. This is "Albanian Cinematography" __________________ © Copyright. Material reserved with copyright by the family of the artist Kin Jaku (Shiroka) and Mr. Bert Shiroka. The photos are also the contribution of Mr. Bert Shiroka and he and the page "Albanian cinematography" are protected from themselves Note: COPYING IS PROHIBITED! Abusers are REPORTED! Please take seriously the warnings of the site that has its database, host and center in New York, USA! EXCLUSIVENESS IN "ALBANIAN CINEMATOGRAPHY" AND IN THE ONLINE NETWORK : 28 – 31 May 2023. Any article similar to this on this page that will appear after these dates and without our approval will be considered PIRACY, an open violation of the rights of the author.