Fadil Paçrami (1922 – 2008) | Playwright, publicist and politician!

Fadil Paçrami (1922 – 2008) Playwright, publicist and politician! Political career He was born in Shkodra on May 25, 1922. He attended the high school of Shkodra between 1935 – 1938, in 1937 he joined the Communist Group of Korça. He continued his higher studies for medicine at the University of Bologna in Italy, where he attended only the first academic year (1941-'42). In 1943 he joined the Albanian Communist Party, and that same year he was appointed a member of the Regional Youth Committee in Tirana. In February 1944, he was elected a member of the Party Committee for Tirana. In 1945, he was elected a member of the secretariat of the Front. In 1946 – 1947 he served as Deputy Minister of Education. From January 1947 to November 1948, he was the director of the archaeological museum. From November 1948 to June 19, 1958, he was the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Zeri i Populli". From 1952 to 1973 he was a member of the Central Committee of the Labor Party. From 1958 to December 15, 1960, a student at the party school in Moscow. In 1960 – 1965 he was director of propaganda of the PP Central Committee. In 1965 – 1966 he was the Minister of Culture and Arts. From 1966 to April 11, 1973, secretary of the PP Committee, meanwhile, from 1970 to 1973, he was also the chairman of the People's Assembly. He was discharged from all functions for liberalism, on June 26 – 28, 1973 the 4th plenum expelled him from the party. He was stripped of his deputy's mandate, which he had had since 1947, and he refused to be accountable to his constituents. On September 15, 1973, the People's Assembly dismissed him from the position of its chairman. He was arrested on October 20, 1975 as an "enemy of the people" and sentenced for agitation and propaganda, his imprisonment lasted until March 17, 1991. He served his sentence in the prison of Burrel and in the prison of Greater Kosovo near Elbasan. It was released on March 17, 1991, two weeks before the first pluralist elections. As a playwright, he is among the most productive and successful playwrights of the dictatorship period, especially in the 60s and 70s. His first drama "Ne tufan" (1959), brought an interesting subject from the war, a wide picture with a variety of types that are included in the political collision of the time, some eyes also with their psychological fluctuations in search of a new identity. The author will restore this approach in a distorted structure for the following drama "Mbi germadha" (1962), where the main character, Shpendi, will represent the honest intellectual, but wavering between the two sides of the class conflict, beginning after the war and the seizures of violent in the industrial sector. This type of hero, now well-known and elaborated by the Soviet literature of the time, after the reluctance that comes from his class affiliation, will finally break away from the bourgeoisie, abandoning identity and passivity and joining the victors in the construction of "The new society". In addition to Shpendi, the drama also presents the figure of the extraordinary commissioner Gjergji in his psychological fluctuations, which spoke of a departure from the schematism of the time regarding the conception of the hero as well as the search for the most original life models. "The house on the boulevard" written in 1964, brought an unprecedented structure in Albanian dramaturgy, with the active presence of the author's character, placed as a kind of judge or Corifeu who explains and evaluates what is going on in Halimi's family (a form that brought to mind some parts of the Russian playwright, Arbuzov). Despite the innovations in the structure, it witnessed some bitter truths of the Albanian society, without embellishing and polishing the reality with morals and happy endings, on the contrary. Thanks to the criticism of the weaknesses, vices and unattractive, even despicable attitudes of some people, important messages are articulated for the moral health of the family and society. With the drama "White and Black" it seems that Fadil Pacrami's tendency towards the type of "polemical" drama, of building the conflict in the form of a discussion, of a thesis and an antithesis, takes shape; also the tendency to strip the "agony" of ideological clichés, coming closer to the constant struggle of good and evil within man, as an existential conflict, as self-fulfillment and as a necessary catharsis. "Incident in the factory" (1968), was one of the most successful dramas of the time, thanks to the beautiful directorship of Kujtim Spahivogli in the popular theater. Composed in the form of a collective meeting of female factory workers, with two sequences and intriguing actions of the director Jashar Driza to avoid responsibility and the expected punishment, it resembled a strong debate against bureaucrats and bureaucracy, calling out, from on the other hand, for massive participation in the execution of the works as well as in the criticism against the so-called "foreign manifestations" of bureaucratism and detachment from the masses. Jashar Driza, the main character and pivot of the dramatic action, is not the "positive" but the "negative", a careerist, arbitrary and authoritarian leader, even though he, in fact, is deprived of the freedom of action and initiative as a factory director. The playwright's idea came as a concretization of the party directives of the time, manifested as part of the organized political and ideological violence on the individual, according to the myths and false political illusions that valued the collective of workers as if they were the direct bearer of the exercises of the executive authority. Thanks to the use of a conventional form with metaphorical and symbolic overlays, the drama "20 days" avoids pathetic and declarative tones; besides the general epic-dramatic spirit of the battle for the liberation of Tirana, it also brought the tragic position of the common man in the face of the Nazi terror; with the fear of death, with the swings, with the hopes or with the sublime attitude, presenting a massive and differentiated reaction, according to the political attitudes of each. "Year 61" is in the form of a heroic-dramatic epic in facing the political pressures of the Soviets after the break with them; their attempt to sabotage the Albanian economy, especially the hiding of mining resources. It has an obvious overlap of political statements, which has damaged it, especially it has schematized the way of building the conflict; from an economic conflict and within a family, not a genuine political conflict along the preconceived lines of the "class war", against revisionist betrayal and great disloyalty to the Labor Party as the ardent defender of international communism, etc. The boldest drama in terms of ideas was "The matter of engineer Saimir", written in 1971, in which bold criticism was found against the rigid and conservative forms of economic management as well as the inability of the prosecution bodies to recognize and protect the truth. Before being imprisoned, Fadil Pacrami also wrote the dramas "Untrodden Roads", "Lagjja e varfer", "I have no longing for the old days". During the long years in prison, he wrote 52 plays, of which only 4 were published in 1999: "After death", "Club of laughing masks", "Rendesa e fajit" and a monodrama in the form of a pamphlet "The Folly of Greatness" , "End of winter". As general features of F. Pacram's dramas, the following stand out: the expressed political tendency as well as a spirit of protest against passive, conservative and inert forms of life; at most, the author constructs the conflicts of his parts in the form of thesis and antithesis, pros and cons, breaking down the characters by means of political debate, moral debate, or related to an idea, with a philosophical meaning, usually in a way directly, preferring open social environments, but without abandoning intimate and family environments.

It stands out for a chosen word and density of thought.

_______________ Albanian cinematography in activity since 2013

Reference: "Encyclopedia, Albanian Theater and Cinematography" – Toena 2009 / J. Papagjoni (p. 335-336) as well as Wikipedia, for the political career.

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