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| Akaki Khorava as Skanderbeg: Wikipedia |
If there is a group of people whom Albanian society has left in oblivion, one of them is undoubtedly Akaki Khorava, the Georgian actor who played the role of our national hero, Gjergj Kastrioti Skënderbeu, in the film dedicated to him, with the same title. i.e. "Skënderbeu" (made in 1953, and even today after almost 70 years it remains the only cinematographic production, an interesting topic is why Albanian directors have not tried to portray it better or from a different perspective).
Despite the different opinions that everyone may have, there is a general idea that the film was very well made if you consider at least two facts:
1. The film managed to get 2 awards and another nomination at the Cannes festival.
2. The difficulties of the time and the lack of experience, since for the Albanian part of the staff, this was the first time that they contributed to the realization of a film.
To come back to the actor Akaki Khorava, the fact is curious that even though we all have the idea of a man with thick hair and a beard stuck in our heads, in his daily life he was completely different, without hair and a beard.
Little has been written about his career before and after the film, but also about the period of shooting the film, by the press and Albanian art researchers.
Recently in Albania, the decision was made to name two new schools after a journalist and a deceased former prime minister.
Without getting into the controversy, I think that neither one nor the other, with all the regret for his premature death, has a sufficient contribution to establish the respective names of the two schools.
Perhaps even a school named after Akaki Khorava may sound like an excessive idea, but a cinema, a theater today could bear his name. Oh, I forgot, we have destroyed these institutions one after the other.