As all Albanian movies made during the Communist totalitarian regime, this one too has the ever present element of propaganda. The Communist always depicted a negative and belittling picture of the Albanian monarchy, as they did with other unwanted historical figures, groups, etc.
Beside that, this movie gives a very entertaining glimpse into pre-WW2 Albania, and it implements the singing of the famous soprano Tefta Tashko Koco as of one of the main characters and in the opening and closing credits.
The plot develops in the small city of Lushnja, where a singer and a pianist educated in Western Europe are sent from the capital by car, with their driver and piano in order to do a show with works of Puccini, Verdi, List. There they find characters of all sorts: a zealot gendarme, a stuttering officer, the old and ignored prefect/mayor, the respected deputy prefect (educated in Western Europe and going crazy from the uncultured people that enter his mosquito filled office), the dotard and rich Bey, fanatic muslim men, the public crier with his many children, and characters portraying the intellectual rebels (future communists) who laugh at the system and write anonymously in the papers to address the poverty and injustice, but that are of a lot of help to the main characters.
The story's crisis is built by the characters which are strong representations of the monarchic system and that benefit from it. We see the over-dressed and patronizing deputy prefect, the Bey that takes by force the poor villagers' land, the corrupted authorities that spy and investigate illegally on the "enemies of the system", etc.
All in all, this is a funny and interesting movie that has to be taken with a grain of salt.
Beside that, this movie gives a very entertaining glimpse into pre-WW2 Albania, and it implements the singing of the famous soprano Tefta Tashko Koco as of one of the main characters and in the opening and closing credits.
The plot develops in the small city of Lushnja, where a singer and a pianist educated in Western Europe are sent from the capital by car, with their driver and piano in order to do a show with works of Puccini, Verdi, List. There they find characters of all sorts: a zealot gendarme, a stuttering officer, the old and ignored prefect/mayor, the respected deputy prefect (educated in Western Europe and going crazy from the uncultured people that enter his mosquito filled office), the dotard and rich Bey, fanatic muslim men, the public crier with his many children, and characters portraying the intellectual rebels (future communists) who laugh at the system and write anonymously in the papers to address the poverty and injustice, but that are of a lot of help to the main characters.
The story's crisis is built by the characters which are strong representations of the monarchic system and that benefit from it. We see the over-dressed and patronizing deputy prefect, the Bey that takes by force the poor villagers' land, the corrupted authorities that spy and investigate illegally on the "enemies of the system", etc.
All in all, this is a funny and interesting movie that has to be taken with a grain of salt.
