Serbia - Exit Europe / The Albanian Renaissance: Film screening at the European University of Tirana

"Serbia – Exit Europe"
and
"The Albanian Renaissance"
(52 minutes each, in English)

on Friday, 17 October 2008, at 17.30

Return to Europe Series
Winner of the 2008 Erasmus EuropeanMedia Award

Communist Albania of Hoxha was a fortress state, seeing enemies everywhere. Two decades later Albania has undergone a dramatic transformation. And yet, few countries in Europe are less understood than this Adriatic republic. Gratuitous violence, organised crime, human trafficking, blood feuds and grinding poverty are the images that first come to mind when the country is mentioned. At the centre of this film are ordinary people who have found their own solutions. The film also tells the story of MJAFT ("Enough"), a youth movement set up in 2002 that quickly became one of the country's most trusted institutions.

"The Albanian Renaissance " is a film of the TV project "Return to Europe", a series of 10 one-hour TV documentaries featuring countries and cities in the Balkans. The aim of the series is to acquaint viewers with this fascinating region and its peoples, their recent past and their struggle for a better future in Europe. The series is supported by ERSTE Stiftung and has been jointly produced by the German-language satellite channel 3sat, Austria's public broadcaster ORF and the TV production company pre-TV, in cooperation with the European Stability Initiative (ESI), upon whose research and analysis these films are based.

In addition, we will show another film of the series – "Serbia – Exit Europe". The Serbia film has recently been shown at an international conference in Barcelona and has received very positive feedback. The film seeks to answer questions such as: Who killed the Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic in 2003? Why has the Radical Party been the strongest party in Serbia for so many years? How does Serbia deal with the crimes from the Milosevic era? And does the electoral success of the Democratic Party in May 2008 really mean that Serbia has freed itself from its bitter legacy and has chosen the EXIT EUROPE?

Between the screening of both films there will be a panel discussion with Gerald Knaus, Remzi Lani, Erion Veliaj, Elisa Spiropali, and Bernd Borchardt (German ambassador to Albania).

Please confirm your participation by e-mail to Enkelda Suti no later than Thursday, 16 October.

• European Stability Initiative (ESI)
• ERSTE Stiftung
• AGENDA Institute
• MJAFT!
• Return to Europe – www.returntoeurope.org