TREASURES FROM THE ALBANIAN FILM ARCHIVE

Despite the rigid Marxist isolation of dictator Enver Hoxha, many foreign (and some Western) films were seen by Albanian audiences during the nearly half-century of communist rule.  Imported to serve as propaganda to the masses, many of these cinema classics were then tucked way into the vaults were they have remained unseen for half a century.  The Tirana International Film Festival (TIFF) in cooperation with the Albanian State Film Archive (AQSHF) are pleased to present prints of these treasures some not available on DVD.

MR TOPAZE/ AKA 'I LOVE MONEY' (1961)  UK
D/R Peter Sellers
NOT AVAILABLE ON DVD

The legendary English comic Peter Sellers directed and starred in this adaptation of a Marcel Pagnol play about a mild-mannered French schoolteacher who takes honesty to an unbelievable level.  After becoming an international superstar in the 1960's, the notoriously eccentric Sellers ordered all copies of the film destroyed - an instruction ignored by Albania.  Critics and fans of Sellers work have been unable to see 'Mr Topaze' ever which barely received a US release in 1962.

Script/Skenari:  Marcel Pagnol, Pierre Rouve
Photography/Fotografia:  John Wilcox
Editing/Montazhi:  Geoffrey Foot
Music/Muzika:  Georges Van Parys
Actor/Aktoret:  Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom, Nadia Gray, Leo McKern. Billie Whitelaw

97m

English w/Albanian subtitles