The former villa of Enver Hoxha in cinema, Cannes Golden Palm winner to screen in Tirana

 The former villa of Enver Hoxha in Tirana

 The former dictator's villa will be turned into a cinema. The winner of the Golden Palm at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival will be in Tirana on August 19 for a presentation and discussion of his film. The project belongs to a nomadic cinema, Cine Tarkovsky, that identifies isolated public facilities, part of the totalitarian systems architecture that has been governing the Balkan states, to turn them into cinemas with free public access for one night.

Vasilis Kekatos shot the short film "The Distance Between Us and the Sky" in 8 hours at a gas station and managed to win the Golden Palm for the best short film. In this sensible, zero-budget work, one can see how creative a young artist can be when his resources are limited. For the first time in Albania, the newly elected winner of the Golden Palm invites a cinematic experience and an open conversation with anyone who will be involved, on creating and winning despite all the difficulties.

Albania's first presentation in Cannes was in 1953 with the movie "The Great Scanderbeg Warrior" directed by the Soviet cinematographer Sergei Yutkevich. Almost 50 years later, Gjergj Xhuvani becomes the first Albanian to be a part of the Director's Fortnight category with the film "Parrullat". In 2019, Erenik Beqiri is the first Albanian to be selected, with the film "The Van".

The Cannes Film Festival, since 1946, has been the most important Festival in the world for decades, bringing the biggest names and innovators to the film industry.