Piro Milkani: Life Like In a Movie
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: January 22, 2024, 19:00 – 21:00
The book Život jako ve filmu (Life Like In a Movie) is a remarkable collection of memoirs by the well-known Albanian director Pir Milkani, who studied in Prague in the late 1950s and served as Albania’s ambassador to the Czech Republic and Slovakia in the late 1990s.
Milkani’s fascinating life story, which is closely linked to the Czech milieu, is laid out in more than 20 chapters. He brings a number of personal memories of many famous Czech, Albanian and European personalities from the field of cinema and politics (e.g., actress Ema Černá, Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni, Václav Havel and others), but the book also captures the interesting fates of some ordinary Czechs and Albanians. Written with insight and nostalgia, the book offers the Czech reader a unique insight into the conditions in the once isolated Albania, into its cultural realities, which are virtually unknown in this country. It also captureswell how Czechoslovakia was considered a culturally advanced and relatively liberal country at the end of the 1950s, from the Albanian point of view. This perspective can also be very valuable for the perception of one’s own past. From the point of view of Czech-Albanian relations, the book is an absolutely crucial source proving that the two nations are linked by a notable tradition of cooperation, which is, however, completely unknown, especially in our country. Piro Milkani himself is the embodiment of this tradition.
Excerpts from the book will be read by Bára Štěpánová in the presence of the author Piro Milkani.
Jana Tomsová will moderate the event.