06/08/2022
DokuFest started this Friday evening. The ceremony that paved the way for a multitude of activities was held in "Lumbardhi Bahçe" and gathered together friends from all over the globe. On such nights, the attendees rightly expect that the organizers take the floor, to wish them welcome. But at DokuFest the usual is not the preferred word.
The young actor Redon Kika, one of the most promising Albanian cinematographers, best interpreted the words written by Veton Nurkollari and Samir Karahoda, which thus opened the festival. "How to survive?" was the question that as a refrain of the festival was posed by this young actor to each of the attendees. Their faces showed the thirst to discover the surprises that this DokuFest opening had in store for them.
"It was quite exciting for me to carry the weight of opening DokuFest, even though I am a professional actor. To be part of a festival as big as DokuFest and to be entrusted with its opening, in front of an audience of about 500 people, is a great fortune and a great responsibility. The text was written by Veton Nurkollari and Sami Karahoda and I felt truly privileged to convey their words on such an important issue as survival. An issue we don't talk about often, so day by day we are forgetting it. It is a topic for which we should raise our voice more because it seems that we are increasingly going towards the end", says actor Redon Kika with emotion.
The audience was introduced to the main theme of the festival through the visual perspective of the talented, now well-known director Leart Rama. Through a 15-minute film production made especially for the opening ceremony of DokuFest and sometimes disturbing, sometimes pleasant, ordinary and extraordinary images from the everyday life of citizens of the globe, Rama knew how to make the public reflect.
"I feel really good, to do something for DokuFest is to do something for my family. This is the second year in a row that the opening ceremony has been entrusted to me, but this year was a nice challenge as I had to make a film whose ending I could not imagine. So naturally, when we saw the finished film for the first time together with the narrator, we were also fascinated.
DokuFest when you believe in something, you really believe in something, without having to follow the process of its development. Everyone saw the film for the first time at the opening, it was a surprise for everyone", says Leart Rama.
Then the evening continued with the screening of the movie "Fire of Love", a production that kept anyone present glued to the screen.
Thus, the 21st edition started, to give the public for 9 days movies, music, debates and of course, lots and lots of love from this small town with big love...
By Ana Haxhimali
Photo Credits: Esad Duraki