The Role of Life Page Rubric Pocket Lighting in "Butterflies in My Cabin"! The year is 1988! Three years have passed since the death of Enver Hoxha, but in fact, it is three years from the last five of the "final countdown" of the dictatorship. Life is getting harder and harder, but on the other hand, a slight wind of change is felt, which would later become the symbolic title of the collapse of an entire system in Eastern Europe! Albania is a little slower at this pace, but still… the changes are felt. The jeans that you used to see as rarely as an orchid before the winter is over, now, how many come and increase, like mushrooms after the rain! Young people move around more freely with long hair, girls can wear mini skirts, all together, they can move around in T-shirts with prints, with different letters and advertisements and, "Coca-Cola" already among the T-shirts or "Marlboro" among sweaters, they are no longer seen as heresy! The heroes of the system, yesterday or today, come and go. The propaganda of the system has simply become a source of laughter! Its most glorious points too! Now the violence, the weapons start to talk more… The glorious partisans belong to a distant past, the army is completely depraved, almost to the point of degeneration, and both of these opposite goals secretly unite at night in a desperate attempt to to keep the system afloat… The murders at the border keep increasing! This wave of changes was perceived much faster in the world of art and especially film. Films with themes from the past where war prevailed have given way to films with social themes. Films like "The Good Man" or "In our House" gave a new impetus to cinema towards social themes and thus we have such beautiful films. such as "Warm Hand", "In Every Season", "Warm Wind of the Deep", "Passion", "On the Edge of Two Legends", "Don't Be Silent", "The Train Leaves at Seven to Five", "Butterfly in my cabin" etc. 
Also, in cinemas, foreign films from the same time but of a different reality, made the cinemas full! We are dealing with the phenomenon Alen Delon who, in a way, killed the fear among young people and, as far as boys are concerned, changed the fashion for them in Albania in the freedom and style of keeping their hair! Epic films with Hercules or the heroes of Troy disappeared from circulation! Films with social themes from the 60s, of Italian cinematography, disappeared from the cinemas too! But… the "Bomb" that changed everything was "Shamikuqja" – (Selvi Boylum Al Yazmalim) which, although it was a Turkish production from 1978, went so well with the Albanian reality! From the beginning of the daily activity of a cinema until the last showing of the film, the theaters were full! At the exit, there were so many people that you could think that… the train came! Women came out crying and a little later, the bet among those standing outside the cinema waiting for others to come out and go in themselves, was how many women would come out of it without crying… Don't be surprised! People waited outside the cinema up to an hour before the movie because they were in a hurry to get tickets! The fear of not being found… In the evenings, on the sidewalks or in front of their houses, the Jews sang a song for Iljazin-the driver in the movie (Kadir Inanir) and accompanied by whistling the melody of the movie! Turkan Soray, the protagonist, never had such fame in her country! Gymysh (Songül Öden), is something quite small compared to her dimensions but…she was invited to a show in Tirana and…something not so small received as a reward in the form of euros! Turkan Soray still deserves to be invited! She, with her role, changed the mentality of many girls and many young brides also in Albania! I can't bet on the influence that "Shamikuqja" had in the creation of one of the next pearls of Albanian cinematography like "Butterfly in my cabin" but, at least at that time, the general impression was, he was! Coincidentally or not, Iljazi (Kadir Inanir), looked so much like our driver! As later, most of the movie "Butterfly in my cabin" resembled "Shamikuqe" like, shooting on a mountain road with forests, a girl who got into a car and it doesn't matter if she is a country girl or a biology teacher, a truck driver and with a mustache, a beautiful woman in the administration office like Dilek Hanëmi (Hülya Tuğlu) or Keti-Shpresa Bërdöluma! Time required a new hero and he could not be like Kanan – Paths of war or like Ibrahim Kovaçi – Eighth in the bronze! It took a man of those days, not so educated (and here the taboos would be broken) but not a bad man either! A portrait was needed that was acceptable to all and adored by women! Albanian cinematography at that time had a pack of aces in hand and had to choose one of them! Xhevdet Ferrin, Kastriot Caushin, Ndriçim Xhepa or Artur Gorishtin…Kastriot Caushi was…"too sweet" and could not interpret the role of a tough young driver as the nature of the mountains he traveled every day with truck. Without his smile, he lost a lot in the role! Xhevdet Ferri was a tall, powerful young man, very honest and proud, but not uneducated in appearance, nor "tough with a mustache"! Artur Gorishti, in one night, touched the glory with "Dora e Nimeal" and one more role would spoil his image as the character Beso, which at that time the public would not even accept! Ndriçim Xhepa met all these criteria that such a role required! He was not the most "handsome" of the other three but…he was the Pocket Light of the roles of the most successful films such as "The Train Leaves at Seven to Five", "Love Your Name", "Don't Be Silent" and "Shadows That Remain" after"! No one could have such an approach to the masses as a young actor and as a physiognomy, plus, he was the only one who could transform into a young, truck driver, tough guy and given even after drinking! 
The movie "Butterfly in my cabin" caused cinemas to be full for a long time, just like with the last biggest success of the Albanian movie "Warm hand". "Shamikuqja" began to be forgotten" and the place was taken by comparisons between Toma-Iljazi, Shamikuqja-Flutura, Dilek Hanëmi-Keti… The success of the film, in addition to Enlightenment and the work of director Vladimir Prifti, is also dedicated to Luiza Xhuvani, Reshat Arbanë, Tinka Kurti and Kastriot Caushi or Guljelm Radojës, Frederik Ndoci… Finally, in the Turkish film "Shamikuqja", there were no actors like Reshat Arbana, in the role of a beloved uncle as a good father but also a good man relative, loved as much as the mother, as was the impressive interpretation of the great Tinka Kurti, missing from that film! Ndriçim Xhepa, belongs to that group of actors for whom everything did not change overnight with the role of a lifetime. His did not change overnight! On the contrary, he came to that role, after many small roles like in "Counselors". "shoulders" from the name of his mother Margarita, always taking small but sure steps, he managed to win in three films – "Love your name", "Don't be silent" and "Shadows that remain behind" in the opinion of art lovers, a very good name, although it was still very young and especially for the female audience, being the most beautiful thing Albanian cinema had from young artists! This, thanks to the characteristic color of his eyes and the "fatal" look both without glasses and beyond their glasses! I am sure that if you ask Ndriçim Xhepa, he is so modest that he will not agree to share the role in this film with other films! Of course, for me as an art lover and for everyone else, his role in "Butterfly in my cabin" is one of the roles that for some Albanian cinema actors until 1990, among different films, is called "Role of Life"! Because if it wasn't the role of life for them, without a doubt they became roles of our life and are still found in it today! Such actors created and placed a few more pearls in the long necklace of Albanian Cinematography! Toma, the driver Tom Melgushi, is one of the most impressive photographs in the Albanian film portrait museum! Ndriçim Xhepa, has long been in the pantheon of that cinematography! ___________________ © Reserved material / Arian Muraj for the page "Albanian cinematography" – May 26, 2013! The repost is dated 20-01-2020!
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