Rikard Ljarja (1943-2020)
Great artist, honor and pride of the nation!
PROLOGUE Rikard Ljarja was an incomparable artist, actor, director and screenwriter. For his merits and contribution to the performing arts, he was only awarded the title “Merited Artist”. But he was still more than “Merited”, he enjoyed more precious titles, from those given to the art-loving public, and he did not need the prizes divided “with a shovel” as is usually the case, because Shkodra that grew him and the Albanian public as a whole knew the colossal dimensions of this artist, a simple man who was much more than the level of the titles “People’s Artist” or “Honour of the Nation”.
Ljarja was, as a whole and at the same time, the honor, the pride of a people, the “teacher, the light of knowledge” for the stage and the screen of a nation. So, for such figures, you can write endlessly thinking that you have said everything, but in reality, you still feel that something is missing.
Rikardi as a complete artist, not only showed it in acting and directing, but also practiced the accordion instrument very well, knew how to write as well and even paint.
There are few actors who are identified in more than 2-3 roles performed by them: “Dritan Shkaba”; “Skender Guri”; “Perlati”; “Rrema”; “Mr. Dosti”; “Luka”…..some of the roles with which he appeared on the movie screen, but above all, the Albanian Art-Lovers identify him with the role of the fillerojtesit Dede in the movie “White Roads”.
Rikard Ljarja, with the role of a feature length artistic life, is considered “the teacher, the light of knowledge” in Albanian cinematography, the one who enlightened the minds and souls of Albanians in acting and directing, in their darkest times.
I
Rikard Ljarja, for a long time held a title, the biggest title, the appreciation of his Albanian people!
Born in Shkoder, in the neighborhood “Skenderbeg”!
Being that the date of birth was April 1, like the day lies / fool`s day all over the world, Rikardi did not become a politician, on the contrary, a special artist who was characterized by honesty, seriousness, professionalism and simplicity.
Ljarja was one of the most popular artistic figures of the 70s and 80s, so much so that in his Shkodra, it was said in the form of a humor for the members of the family, “me, the wife, the children and…Rikardi”.
His father was a teacher who had studied in Austria, while his mother came from a well-known family, whose book was an integral part of her life, “Logoreci” family. As a child, Ljarja was educated with books through his mother who read him fairy tales. Then, among the first books he read himself was “Pinoku”.
At the age of 5, without entering school, his parents sent him to learn the piano. Since the piano was beyond the financial possibilities of the time, an accordion was found, an instrument that would accompany him throughout his life.
Along with the musical instrument, Rikardi never been separated from the books, he read with passion from Tolstoy, Balzac, Chekhov, the stories by Guy de Maupassant. At the age of graduation, he learns that a school for actors has opened in Tirana. In his class, the director of the “People’s Theater”, Xhemal Broja, and the director Pandi Stillu, who came to choose elements for the school, are introduced…but Rikardi wins the right to study for something else, a two-year mathematics-physics course.
“What about me for mathematics and physics? I am a musician” he would express himself at that time. Contrary to his father’s opinion, who did not consider acting as a true profession, he decided to go to the acting school, after realizing that the number of students had not yet been completed.
II
Presented in the competition.
The well-known director, Mihallaq Luarasi, recommends him to recite Mjeda’s verses, which he pronounces badly and quickly, stuttering without meaning and where he creates a comic situation, but which in itself unwittingly contains elements of acting.
None of the professors assigned to evaluate the contestants understand: “What are you talking about?”
He is asked to repeat them once more without hurrying, and Rikardi repeats the lines: “Plucked apples from a branch / two cherries connect with a circle / where the borders of the Gega begin / there are two chicks…”
“Get out” is told immediately!
A little later, the director of the theater, Xhemal Broja, confirms him as the winner and tells him to bring the relevant documents needed for the acting school. And here, he gives the cinema test for the movie
“Commissar of light”, in the role of the commissar competing with his school friend Mark Topallaj, (future actor and director) and in the absence of Ndreke Luce (no one knew why he did not come for the rehearsals) reads and interprets the role of the priest.
In the meantime, Ljarja finished school and was appointed as an actor in the “Migjeni” Theater in 1965, where he would perform until 1973.
A little while later, he was informed by the director of this theater to leave immediately for Tirana, where the head of the Albanian cinematography, the late now Niko Koleka tells him to appear at Kinostudio. Wins the role of commissar, that of Dritan Shkaba, replacing the actor Mark Topallaj, for whom he was initially more inclined.
Thus, with the “first blow” he takes the debut role, which is still a great success today. Precisely, in 6 months of filming in this film, Rikard learns the profession of acting.
Rikardi’s father had a student at the Elbasan “Normale School”, the hero of the people, Ndrec Ndue Gjoka, whose role his son was now playing. It was the school that taught and educated students with patriotism in a concrete way, so such a symbolic figure as the hero teacher Ndrece Ndue Gjoka was created for the time.
The success of this film and the protagonist role is indescribable, a fact that is proven by the premiere on July 10 in the cinemas of Rreshen and especially in the summer cinema of Shkodra, where the ticket is sold on the black market at a reasonable price for the time: 100 leke
” …. while the protagonist “Dritan Shkaba” still did not understand what he had created!
After many years, Rikardi pointed out his modesty, saying that it was just a coincidence, a matter of seconds that became decisive in his life to become an actor and not a musician.
Within a short period of time, he would become one of the most active and famous actors on the Albanian film screen. The talented interpretation of the hero teacher role has opened the way for many other following ones.
Later, he has another key role in the movie “Silent Duel”, that of a sailor (Skender Guri), where he skillfully interprets alongside the great Ndrek Luca, a true event that was turned into a movie.
Then came a series of films and other roles from 1973 to 1996, where he performed as an actor in the films “Old Wounds”, “White Roads”, “Triumph ovwer Death”, “Illegals”, “Radio Station”, “Bitter Spring”, “Circle of memory”, “White sheets” (TV) etc.
In 1974, Ljarja will perform with professionalism another main role that will make him remain in the memory of the Albanian art lovers audience, that of the unforgettable Deda in “Rruge te bardha” where in a sense the script of this film resembles that of Jesus, the painful journey to Golgotha, the way of the cross;
This is how the great director Viktor Gjika would ask him:
“Look Rikard, doesn’t the path and suffering of this man resemble that of Jesus to Golgotha”?
As a director, he started with “Rrugicat qe kerkonin diell” (co-author) and later directed the films “The Weight of Time”, “When the doors of life open”, “Sketerrë 43”, “Radiostationi” etc.
Still as a director, his most successful film remains “When the doors of life open”, which was made in 1986, where he was also the author of the script. This film was awarded the “Aleksandër Moisiu” award.
It does not matter the philosophy conveyed in those films made under a totalitarian system, the image and characters that Larja has left behind have made him remain as one of the unique actors produced by the former giant of those years Kinostudio “Shqiperia e Re” , which was exactly like the Albanian “CineCitta” or “Hollywood”.
A very few people know the fact that Rikard Ljarja writes very well. The man whose portrait we are accustomed to identify immediately as soon as we see him on the movie screen, has another talent, writing. Friends, as well as those readers who have read his book, know that Rikardi knows how to write well.
During his career, he has produced two film scripts such as
“The Weight of Time” in 1988 and “When the Doors of Life” are opened in 1986, as well as the books “Time of Dogs” – Confessions; “We are lost around here”; “A Desolate Place”;
In 2018 he published the book Josifopedia from “Mapoedition”
Although his name has not been mentioned much on the screen after the nineties, before these years the acting figure of Rikard Ljarja has always been at the center of the screen and the Albanian scene.
His portrait was constantly present, both in the cinema and on Albanian television. The famous actor originally from Shkodra, with his interpretation and special portrait, had conquered the cinema screen as well as the television screen. Distinguished not only by his attractive appearance, his vocals, but also by his ability to act, R. Larja has performed about a hundred roles on stage and in cinematography. The “Honored Artist”, the great actor, whose name has already been engraved forever in the history of Albanian cinema, rests in Shkodra, where he was born, in the “Rrmajve” cemetery.
Publishing date: April 23, 2020
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Albanian Cinematography in activity since 2013
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