Fatmir Gjata (1922 – 1989) | Profile!

Fatmir Gjata
Playwright, prose writer, poet. He belongs to the golden generation of Albanian writers. Is a screenwriter of several Albanian films and dramas.

Fatmir Gjata was born in Korce on September 22, 1922. He was born in a family with patriotic traditions. Raised and educated in a patriotic family environment, Fatmir Gjata was connected, from a young age, to the Anti-Fascist National Liberation War. During the war, he kept his rifle and pen separate. Gjata studied at the Lyceum of Korce. Then he completed his higher studies in Moscow, at the Maxim Gorky Institute.

He was the editor-in-chief of the well-known magazine “Nendori” and a freelance writer. Among his publications, we can mention “Blood Drops” (1945) – sketches and stories; “Songs of the mountains” (1954); the novel “Tana” (1959), which became the first Albanian feature film; the novels “The Marsh” (Keneta) (1959), which was also made into the film “First Years”; “Counselors” (1979), which was also made into a film with the same title; the diary “A bag of cartridges” (1982);

His publications continued with “Songs of Maliher Riffle”, the song poem of the partisan “Benka”. The social-psychological novel “The Marsh” has had several stage versions in the theater “AZ Cajupi” in Korce and “Migjeni” in Shkoder, where the writer takes the inspiration from the work of drying Maliqi’s marsh. This work marks an important step in the construction of the subject of the novel and the drawing of the characters. As a playwright, he wrote the play “Girl from the village” (1954), where through a simple subject he treated with a lyrical-romantic spirit the problem of choosing in love against impositions, as well as the emancipation of village girls in opposition to the inherited norms, which operated with force in the patriarchal environment of those years.   

He was the chairman of the Arts and Culture Committee in 1951-1953. Gjata has been elected a member of the steering committee and the presidency of the League of Writers and Artists of Albania, since its foundation.

For his work and creativity, he received the Second and Third Class Republic Award, the First Class Red Banner of Labor Order and various medals.

He passed away in 1989

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Albanian Cinematography – since 2013

Reference: “Albanian Encyclopedia, Theater and Cinematography” – Toena 2009 / J. Papagjoni / p. 166 as well as Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia. Albanian cinematography in activity since 2013