Viktor Bruçeti (1938-2010) “Merited Artist” | “Harapi” of Shkodra

Viktor Bruçeti (1938-2010)
Merited artist! “The theater is a wonderful cradle for the actor where he realizes the dreams of his life. He lives on the stage. As if a bird does not fly and does not touch the skies. Can you stop it? Can this wonderful creature be a bird of heavenly spaces? This applies not only to his career, but also to those 8 subway pods, which we call the stage, with worries and joys that is called theater it changes the lives of people who follow it in the hall. It has and gives powerful messages, since early antiquity when the masterpieces of Aeschylus, Sophocles and his friends were mounted” – V. BRUÇETI

Shkodra has not lacked artists and…..oh, what artists this city has had, without exaggeration, those who could climb without fear on any European stage, maybe the time when they lived was “wrong”.

One of the artists of that golden generation was the well-known actor Viktor Bruçeti, or “The Harapi of Shkodra” (for his masterly interpretation of the role in the drama “Baca i Gjetajve”. Viktor Bruceti in “Harapi, the masha” of the Beylers of Shkodra”

“…. yes, the tower can collapse, and it can burn, and the bayrak stays inside and it’s not worth tying it to even the lacing” / “…. while your son licks the ranks through the bushes / Why do you have the face like that? You see, your braves deal with thorns, O Bayraktar” / … that’s why Bayraktar’s dogs did not bark” / “Your braves o Kadri, fight with women”

Below we reproduce an article published in “Gazeta Shqiptare” online in v. 2009, just one year before he passed away. Bruceti family has been living in France for 10 years together with his wife Miriam, also an actress of the Theater of Shkodra, they both lived with the dream of the stage in a place that they considered the home of actors, in Angouleme, a picturesque and historical city near the center. of France. They shared everything in the space of the day, between the house and walks in suburban parks. They lived with the memories and the artwork they left behind.

Viktori is graduated from the Romanian art school as an actor on the Albanian stage, where for several decades he would have to play in over 130 roles in the theater and 14 such roles in feature films. Actor of negative roles, but he remembers with nostalgia at “Migjeni”, when he played Pal and Mark, roles from the series of positive characters.

Bayraktars and priests have been the creatures he has climbed on the Shkodra stage, but also on the screen, he has a very long career as an actor.

“I told some truths against the regime then. I had the opportunity to turn the man against. This is what we were able to do today and after the 90s. I felt comfortable in my role.”

Serafin Fanko was the director who left the most impressions during his life on the theater stage, which he had at the same time as a colleague. Coming from the Romanian theater school, he remembered his student years with nostalgia. The actor Fanke Jordake, one of the stars of Romanian art that has shone for several decades in that country, was his former best colleague in the school banks.

When Bruceti was asked what the theater is for him, he described it exactly with the professionalism of an actor: “The theater is a wonderful cradle for the actor where he realizes his life’s dreams. He lives on stage. As if a bird does not fly and don’t touch the skies. Can you stop it? Can it be a wonderful creature of the sky? Not only his career, but also his life is spent in those 8 metro pods , which we call the stage, with worries and joys that the magic that is called theatre. It changes the lives of people who follow it in the hall. It has and gives powerful messages, since the early antiquity when the masterpieces of Aeschylus, Sophocles with friends”

While he would say: “Many of my colleagues say that the roles are like our children. I would say something different than that. Maybe more from a point of view, they are real they are an alienation, regardless of the heart that we actors give to the character. This means getting under someone else’s skin that you neither know nor have ever known. You’ll never even have the chance. Understand here how different from each other are these figures that you have to create on the stage for others, those who follow you in the hall, and who expect to be educated by the degree of credibility you give to that role.

I personally would not classify the roles in the traditional way we are used to call them, positive roles and negative roles. This is not important for a trained actor. Because, without any exception, they require the same commitment to create, the same effort and passion from the actor. But, in reality, as a statistic, the life and career of an actor goes through the cycle of three stages. In roles with heroes, negative roles and comic roles. This is actually the cycle where an actor’s career goes along the stage.

I have had just over 130 roles on stage and another 14 in feature films. That everyone is dear to me.” Maybe Viktor Bruceti was cut out for negative roles?! Maybe, but…….He had the role of Migjeni in Tom Soshi’s part, Pali of “Përkolgjinajt”, to his heart, but also Marku, to the “Invitation to dinner”, which are considered positive. In his long life on stage, which goes beyond forty years, he had to play roles from what are now called negative, but which also stand as a concept for society at different stages of its development.

“Harapi” of Shkodra in the drama “Baca i Gjetajve”, is considered one of the most interesting roles of his creativity as an actor, an accomplished role, but also the priest in the TV movie, “Days that brought spring”. With the latter, where he played the role of the priest Viktor, an expression was born in the genre of the Shkodra joke, one of those jokes that only the people of Shkodra knew how to embroider at that time, but which actually hid a dissidence that was missing for the bitter truth. Someone said; “The churches are now open again, the priest-Viktor is ready. There is a danger of the cuckoo there……

The Shkodra troupe in those years was one of the best in the whole country. But how would Viktor Bruceti say about the institution “his home” for more than 30 years: “…..today everything has changed. Every time the road leads me to my former home there in Shkodër, it not only fills my eyes with tears because of the current state of that institution with such a name, but I also feel bad when I learn that my former colleagues are already without a wing, without an artistic life, without the scene that raised them and made them real artists.

Perhaps with a little more commitment from the authorities, things will no longer be like this for the theater, this rare artistic wealth that we have inherited. This is not about making time differences. Because, even in what we left behind, it would be a real pity that several generations of talented actors were crushed by playing the roles of partisans and Germans, as if it were a game of sticks in the alleys. They stayed there. I myself too. I have respect in the first place for the actor and the artist who is still not finding his place in society.”

Brucetti’s last words would be about the daily life he lived and the longing for his homeland: “I feel good together with Miriam. But we don’t forget Albania. Where Çajupi says, “our head has become heavy”. However, life here is quite different. There is another rhythm. I spend most of my time in the parks, which are always green. Sometimes alone and sometimes with Miriam. When I walk in the park, I recite to myself. In most cases, “Tringan” of Mjeda. I feel like I’m close to the stage, above it. I live with my past and my future in those moments. And, I continue to dream like a twenty-year-old ”

Link of the article on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/notes/399072414585491/ Actor’s album on Facebook – Albanian Cinematography

October 2013 and republished on February 2020

References: The interview of Viktor Bruceti was used in v. 2009 given to “Albanian Newspapers”

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Albanian Cinematography since 2013