Albanian Connection

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ISMAIL KADARE

Albanian writer, frequently mentioned as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature, a leading figure of Albanian cultural life from the 1960s. During the terror of the Hoxha regime, Kadaré attacked on totalitarianism and the doctrines of socialist realism with subtle allegories, although as a committed Marxist he officially supported the liberation of Albania from its backward past. Among Kadaré's best-known works is The General of the Dead Army (1963). In the story an Italian general is immersed in his absurd and gruesome mission in Albania. He never realizes that he is as dead as the fallen soldiers of past wars. Ismail Kadaré was born in the museum-city of Gjirokastra, in southern Albania. His father worked in the civil service. Kadare grew up during the years of World War II, witnessing the occupation of his home country by fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union. He attended primary and secondary schools in Gjirokastra, and went on to study languages and literature at the Faculty of History and Philology of the University of Tirana. In 1956 Kadaré received a teacher's diploma. He also studied at the Gorky Institute of World Literature in Moscow. In 1961 Albania broke with the Soviet Union, and finally with all other countries, including China. From the cultural standstill arose a new generation of writers, among them Kadaré, Fatos Arapi, and Dritëro Agolli, who was for many years head of the Albanian Union of Writers, although his work was occasionally felt to be out of touch with the party line. In Albania Kadaré first won fame as a poet. Writers hostile to Hoxha suffered persecution. Kadare's attitude to the Hoxha regime was ambiguous. His first novel, Gjenerali i ushtrisë së vdekur (1963, The General of the Dead Army), is a study of postwar Albania and begins in a pouring rain. The general of the title is on a mission to Albania, years after the occupation and war, to dig up and repatriate the bones of his fellow soldiers, who had died in the country during World War II. "I have a whole army of dead men under my command," he realizes bitterly. Before completing his work, the general suffers a nervous breakdown in a wedding feast. Dasma (1968, The Wedding) was well received in Albania. The heroine of the novel, a young peasant girl, is rescued from a traditional arranged marriage by factory work. She meets and marries a man she loves, thus breaking the traditions. Kadaré's Chronicle in Stone (1971) was praised by John Updike in The New Yorker as "sophisticated and accomplished in its poetic prose and narrative deftness". In Kështjella (1970, The Castle), a story of Albania's struggle against the Ottoman Turks, and Ura me tri harqe (1978, The Three-Arched The Bridge), an account of the events surrounding the construction of a bridge across a river, Kadaré depicted the feudal Albania. After offending the authorities with a politically satirical poem in 1975, he was forbidden to publish for three years. In Broken April (1978), a story about the blood feud, Kadaré returned to one of his favorite themes - how the past affects the present. "Gjorg came out of the concealment and walked towards the body. The road was deserted. The only sound was the sound of his own footsteps. The dead man had fallen in a heap. Gjorg bent down and laid his hand on the man's shoulder, as if to wake him. 'What am I doing?' he said to himself. He gripped the dead man's shoulder again, as if he wanted to bring him back to life. 'Why am I doing this?' he thought." Nënpunësi i pallatit të ëndrrave (1981, The Palace of Dreams) was a political allegory of totalitarianism, set in an Ottoman capital. The central character is a young man, Mark-Alem, whose job is to select, sort, and interpret the dreams of the imperial populace in order to discover the "master-dream" that will predict the overthrow of the rulers. The basically humorous novel for others than the Albanian authorities was almost immediately banned after its publication. In 1982 Kadaré was accused by the president of the League of Albanian Writers and Artists of deliberately evading politics by cloaking much of his fiction in history and folklore. Hoxha died in 1985, and his successor, Ramiz Ali, was a less powerful figure. In October 1991, a few months before the collapse of the communist regime, Kadaré emigrated to Paris where he has lived with his family ever since. Koncert në fund të dimrit (1988, The Concert) was considered the best novel of the year 1991 by the French literary magazine Lire. The story is laid against Albania's break with China. In exile Kadaré has expressed his disappointment and bitterness. La Pyramide (1992), written in French, was set in Egypt in the twenty-sixth century B.C. and after. In the novel Kadaré mocked Hoxha's fondness for elaborate statutes, the pyramid form also reflecting any dictators love for hierarchy.

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JAMES BELUSHI
James Belushi was born June 15, 1954 in Chicago. Both of his parents were Albanian. His father was 16 when he immigrated from Albania, and his mother was born in US by Albanian immigrants. The 3rd of four children, he grew up in Wheaton, Illinois. A high school teacher, impressed by Jim's improvisational skills while giving speeches, convinced Jim to to be in a school play. After that he joined the school's drama club. Today if asked why he got involved in acting, he will jokingly say "Because of girls. In the drama club, there were about 20 girls and six guys. And the same thing with choir....more girls!". He attended the College of Dupage and Southern Illinois university where he graduatedIn 1977, Jim joined Chicago's Second City improv troupe for three years. In 1979, Garry Marshall saw Jim performing for 2nd City and arranged for him to come to Hollywood and co-star in the TV Pilot "Who's Watching the Kids" for Paramount, and then for a role in the television show "Working Stiffs" (co-starring Michael Keaton). Later, in 1983, he joined the cast of Saturday Night Live for 2 years. Jim came to national attention through his role in the film "About Last Night", playing the role he originated in the Chicago Apollo Theatre's production of David Mamet's Obie-award winning play "Sexual Perversity in Chicago". He currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife Jennifer, and their daughter, Jamison and a son, Robert, from Belushi's first marriage. with a degree in Speech and Theater Arts.

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ELIZA DUSHKU
Eliza Patricia Dushku was born December 30, 1980 in Boston, Massachusetts and named after an aunt. Surrounded by brothers, she admits to being quite the tomboy when she was a little girl. Rumor has it Eliza has also studied dancing and singing and was often seen in children's theater, signing for the deaf. Now, 20 years old, she already is considered a veteran of the large and small screen. Eliza has numerous starring roles in several acclaimed films. She began her movie career in the movie "That Night" at the tender age of twelve, playing Alice Bloom opposite Juliette Lewis. She has starred with such notable players as Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert de Niro as well Arnold Schwarzeneggar in such major motion pictures as This Boy's Life & True Lies, respectively. More film work from the nineties included the Hallmark TV movie Journey, the Paul Reiser flick Bye Bye, Love and Race the Sun. She began to get older roles, able to look a few years beyond her true age.

After graduating from high school, the then-17-nearly-18 year old Eliza auditioned for television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and won the part of Faith, a Slayer much more troubled than Buffy. The role began in the fall of 1998 and was only supposed to be a short stint, but actress and character soon won over the cast, crew and audience. The role became a recurring one and continued throughout the 1998-1999 season (the third year of BtVS). She has since had guest starred on various episodes of both BtVS and its spinoff Angel. She steals every scene she is in. The movie Bring It On opened #1 in the box office in August 2000. Eliza received second billing as Missy, a tough tumbler turned cheerleader. The movie held strong at the box office, topped in the charts two weeks in a row, then staying in the top ten for a few months' time. With four new films opening in 2001 alone, it's safe to say Eliza will continue to grace the big screen for quite some time.