The Survivors (1993)

Thousands of Albanians are returning from years of internal exile with grizzly accounts of a regime whose malevolence can scarcely be grasped. In the time of the Stalinist dictator Enver Hoxha, more than half of the Albanian population spent years in labour camps and in prison, simply because they thought differently, simply because they wanted to be free. Often they were perpetual exiles with no form of trial. Just two years ago they were all released. Hundreds of thousands of them. But Hoxha's camps are not empty. Many ex-prisoners still live in the concentration camps because they have no other home. Those who remain behind, continue to live Albania's dark past. Victor Dosti was 19 when he was arrested. His father had fought communism and that made all Dostis enemies of the people. Viktor became acquainted with all the camps in Albania and with a regime that went all out to crack the exiles' morale. As an internee he married another internee. Their three children were born in the camp. Viktor was 65 when he was released. For 45 years, only the thought of his innocence has sustained him. Most of his friends in the camp did not survive the regime. With Viktor Dosti and his wife Hyrije we went back to Sektori Gradishte. There the Dostis did not avoid the confrontation with one of their earlier executioners. Vera Bekteshi is trying to build a new life in Tirana. She used to teach Natural Science at the university, before she had to pay for the fact that she was the daughter of army General Sadik Bekteshi. In 1974 Enver Hoxha thought he was preparing a coup against him. Vera's father went to jail and his whole family were sent to the camps. In Shiqis the regime managed to eliminate 17 years of her youth.