When an overwhelming majority of Albanians aim and do their best to live abroad, some foreigners have the ill fortune of living in Albania. Especially the foreigners who populate the European representation of the film "The Internationals." They suffer the most. In Albania, eating the neighbors' sheep, the waiter spying, the meat not dying, the cleaner peeling the woman, and the ambulance delaying more than one charter plane from Spain. Not everyone has the guts to live here.
"The Internationals," based on Ylljet Alicka's book "Confessions with Internationals", comes on screen with the latter and Pluto Vasit, who also directed. The film was shot about three years ago, premiered a year and a half ago and finally comes to theaters. Yesterday I was able to see it and today I have the opportunity to tell you what it left me.
At the center of the plot is Roshi, played by Eni Shehu, an Albanian employed at the European Representation. He experiences the whole calvary of bureaucracies, elbows, steps before and after his career, love in the office and manages to see closely all the figures that the Albanian state mitigate and mount on the pedestal, simply because they are strangers and "know what they are saying." " The Internationals ?is described as black comedy and when it is over, you realize it is. The respect with which we treat foreign representatives in the country is so exaggerated that it affects the absurd.
This dynamic between locals and foreigners prompts Roshi to write a comedy staging in the theater demonstrating how ridiculous the relationship and behavior of these working and resident representatives in Albania is. Of course, this frustrates the Representation that like any other institution in the world does not like to see the truth in their eyes. The film opens with the closing, a risk that is rewarded at the conclusion of the minute.
Sounds interesting or not? In Albanian, there are not many films with a political perspective, although there are endless sources of inspiration. So I was excited to read the description of "The Internationals."
But, unfortunately, a fresh and intriguing concept like this is not properly executed. Like the work of communism. Excellent in theory, not so much in practice. But unlike communism, which we know where it stands, it does not put its finger on the "internationals" as it goes. I can call it a lack of refinement, as if they mistakenly started producing the third draft instead of the final one, and nobody noticed.
The same goes for the performance of the actors. Not everyone is looking in the same direction and as a result, a performance is very comical, one is very dramatic, one is very vital, one is not acting at all. If the director were a bit more compelling, the characters would appear more cluttered.
The favorite detail in the film, which I hope was intentional, is the dialogue of the alien characters, built on the syntax of their mother tongue. Although there are English, Spanish, Greek characters, they speak Albanian in the film. But to differentiate the characters from Albanian nationality, the text looks like it has been literally translated from the mother tongue. For example, an English woman says, "I was robbed, boy," which is not commonly used in Albanian. But in English, "I robbed, lad," is very natural. Thus, excessive contradictions, circumstances in the wrong place, etc. were noticed in the dialogue.
Also, scenography and costume design have done a good job, as neither one kills the eye. When something goes wrong, it is impossible not to notice.
"Internationals" cannot be classified as a bad movie. Probably challenging would be a more appropriate term. From the confusing plot, it requires a bit more attention and if you are not intrigued by the politics of cinematography, you will find it interesting as a realization.
The "internationals" can be seen daily at Cineplexx at TEG at 9:45 pm
