“Poppies on the wall” is a 1976 production of the Kinostudio “Shqiperia e Re”, directed by Dhimitër Anagnosti, whose script was based on the novel “Bonjakët” by the writer Petraq Qafëzezi.
The autobiographical novel published in 1972 won first prize in the national competition held by the League of Writers and Artists in Tirana. The efforts and assistance provided by Albanian debaters and youth in the fight against the Italian fascists, who invaded Albania on April 7, 1939.
The story takes place in one of Tirana’s orphanages during the years of the occupation of Albania by fascist Italy during World War II.
The orphans, placed under the orders of the director and the caretaker, are forced to clean the slogans on the walls, which the anti-fascists wrote from time to time against the enemy, night after night.
Four orphan friends, Jaçe, Lelo, Bardhi and Tomi, one of whom had a connection with the young anti-fascist Ali, in protest against the invaders begin to secretly organize plans against some hated collaborators, who were known as servants and spies of the Italian fascists. Two of them, who were also targeted by the illegal communists, were the director of the orphanage and its caretaker.
Encouraged by Ali’s assassination attempt on an Italian officer, the orphans become brave and think about how they can throw their treacherous guardian off the stairs of the silo where they slept. The plan they organized proves successful. One night, the guardian, drunk does not see the string that the children had tied on both sides of the stairs and as a result falls and breaks his arm.
The director of the orphanage notified the Italians, with the aim of helping them and making it possible to capture the organizers and participants. But the Italians did not achieve their goal either, as all the orphans questioned remained silent. Sulo, one of the six children of the orphanage’s cleaner, who was not actually an orphan, but one supposedly registered as such by his mother, since she could not feed him, also remained silent.
The orphan Sulo, whom the guardian had set to spy on his friends, out of fear of the constant pressures, tries to overcome the wall of the orphanage at night, but is shot dead by an Italian patrol.
Some older orphans abandon the orphanage and go underground. They join a group of “debatikas” who, while still children, join the anti-fascist struggle to liberate the country from the Italian occupiers.
The Cast
Timo Flloko…. Teacher Luan Sina
Agim Qirjaqi….School Principal
Kadri Roshi…Caretaker / “Kujdestari katil”
Pavlina Mani….Italian Music Teacher
Alfred Kote….Aliu
Liza Laska…..Servant of the Orphanage
Anastas Kristofori….Stavri, the Orphanage Steward
Luan Qerimi….Sandro, the Quaestor
Enver Dauti….Loni, the Cook
Strazimir Zaimi…..Jaçe
Enea Zheku…Lelo
Krenar Arifi….Sulo
Gjergj Pilika….Tomi
Artur Haxholli….
Roland Ohri….
Robert Xhuli….
Vasillaq Vangjeli….Italian Officer
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Albanian Cinematography in activity since 2013
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