Director: Elton Baxhaku, Eriona Çami
Screening time: 10.04.2017. 17:15
Screening location: Kino Europa
Runtime: 71 min
Awards: Previous Festivals: Dokufest – International Documentary and Short Film Festival – 2016
Synopsis:
SELITA dramatically chronicles the efforts of activists and Roma residents who try to halt highway construction threatening to destroy their neighborhood in Tirana, Albania. Recorded over two and a half years, this documentary captures the often-heated confrontations between concerned citizens and powerful government forces. In 2014, the newly-elected Albanian socialist party began an ambitious highway project whose path was planned to cut right through the heart of Selita, a community of shacks and villas, built at the chaotic end of the communist regime. Rather than simply allow their neighborhood to be destroyed, a group of idealistic activists united with residents to take on the Selita cause. But during the struggle, the already exhausted advocates were forced to split their energies to stop the eviction of Roma in the southern Albanian city of Korca. SELITA is a powerful reminder of the enormous personal cost and shady political compromises taking place in Albania, a country still in the midst of transition and social struggle.
