National Experimental Theater “Kujtim Spahivogli”, Tirana, premiere March 2024
Blending fiction and documentary material, Sajza Flower presented by the young director Endri Çela depicts the tragedy of the women and children interned in the Tepelena Camp during the Albanian dictatorship.
The Tepelena camp operated from 1949 to 1954, primarily holding women, children, and the families of the persecuted. These innocent women found themselves interred in the Tepelena camp and could do nothing to change their fate; they faced torture and inhumane conditions. The bad conditions in the camp resulted in a high rate of infant mortality. During Albania’s dictatorship, the camp’s existence was largely unknown, except to local residents and relatives, as its inhumane tortures conflicted with communist propaganda. Even today, despite some efforts to raise awareness, the general population in Albania remains largely unaware of what happened in this camp.
The play aims to emotionally engage and inform the audience about the tortures and human rights violations that took place at the Tepelena Camp, enriching their understanding through the representation of real events. While the former camp has not yet been converted into a museum, the play Sajza Flower transforms the stage into a site of memory.
Çela’s performance is presented to a small audience. This material is not easy to hear and a degree of intimacy and trust is needed to share these stories. Scenographer Beqo Nanaj’s set features dry branches, and barbed wires with letters stuck on them, symbolizing the stories that never left the camp. Two women sit facing the audience with a grave between. They are awaiting a third woman. It appears the play can’t start without her, but the audience soon realize they are sitting around the grave of this third character. It’s a shocking beginning, but one that successfully introduces the sensitive themes of forced labour, torture, violence, hunger, disease, sexual abuse, and the loss of children that permeate the play.
The lines between fiction and reality are blurred throughout the play. The story of Sajza is based on a short story by Albanian writer Agron Tufa. In it, Sajza, an 8-year-old girl, asks her mother before she dies what will happen to her after death. To give her hope and to make the suffering worthwhile, the mother says that when beautiful girls like her die, a flower with her name blooms. Sajza’s spirit waits for several springs, but it was not meant for a Sajza flower to bloom in this world. This is because Sajza does not have a grave; she was exhumed and reburied several times along with the bodies of many other children.
The play also features testimonies extracted from Voices of Memory, a publication of the Institute of Studies of Crimes and Consequences of Communism in Albania. It is also includes material based on testimonies from Fatbardha Saraçi (Mulleti), and Kastriot Dervishi. Actresses Rajmonda Bulku and Adriana Tolka portray two real-life characters from the Tepelena camp, Klora Mirakaj and Asije Habili. Even the audience is made a character in the performance, playing the role of the interlocutors of the two characters.
Every fact mentioned is accompanied by images on the screen, real archive documents, media reports, and personal testimonies. Seated on a bench, Klora and Asije barely move during the play. The only one who moves on stage is Sajza. She transforms all their stories into movements. Valentina Myteveli, who portrays Sajza, is their body, while they are her voice.
Sajza Flower, National Experimental Theater “Kujtim Spahivogli”
Through choreography and scenic movements, she presents the audience with all the memories of Klora and Asije as if they are happening in the present. Standing between the two narrators and the spectators, Myteveli carries the artistic weight of the play.
Besides the main actors, real testimonies of individuals who suffered in the camp are shown on screen, representing the voices of many who suffered the same fate. Throughout the performance, there is an attempt to balance both elements of documentary theatre: to combine artistic expression with historical accuracy.
Rajmonda Bulku is one of the most renowned names in Albanian cinema before and after the fall of the dictatorship. Although she starred in the first film addressing the communist past and injustices, The Death of the Horse, seeing her in this format brings a sense of artistic completion. Adriana Tolka not only acts but also performs the anthem song for the Tepelena camp at the end of the play, composed by Rafael Marinaj for Sajza Flower while Valentina Myteveli, a choreographer and professional dancer, also displays considerable acting skills.
After narrating the selected real-life stories from Çela’s research, the play returns to the fictional story, to Sajza and her spirit, which like the spirit of many other children, remains trapped inside the camp in Tepelena, behind the barbed wire.
Credits:
Director: Endri Çela//Composer: Rafael Marinaj//Scenographer: Beqo Nanaj//Costume Designer: Sofi Kara//Video Editing: Marjo Cani//Lighting: Taulant Kotorri
Cast: Rajmonda Bulku, Adriana Tolka, and Valentina Myteveli
Oriada Dajko is a cultural researcher, young poet, and a short story writer. She has been representative of Albania in festivals and international literary activities
for young writers on several occasions. Her research focuses on dealing with the past in the Balkans. Her collaborative research studies in the field of memory and dark heritage have been published in Germany and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
