Like thousands of other Albanians, director Robert Budina also emigrated from Albania in the early 90s.
In an interview for “Quo Vadis” by moderator Pranvera Borakaj, Budina shared the reasons that led her to flee Albania.
He said that even though he had contributed to the creation of DP, to the change of the system in Albania, he began to feel disappointment, since what he had dreamed of was not the way it was happening.
Budina said that, disappointed by politics and reality, he decided to emigrate to Italy with the dream of studying art.
Excerpts from the conversation:
Borakaj: When did you decide to emigrate to escape from Albania?
Bidina: I, being a rebellious nature, realized that the art of that time did not speak as it should, it hid things. I am saying this to understand why I emigrated. Since communism, I put a part of Kadare that belonged to the regime, but with symbols. Everyone liked it but with a fear, anyway it was 89 the end was coming, no one was persecuted but it was self-censorship. I became very active, I dealt with organizations with the formation of PD, we collected the lists, we woke up the students. In the 90s twice, the wave fell once, we revived it again. The Kavaja event was organized by OPD, I was very active. In this activity, I saw that politically, things are not the same as the desire to change, along the way, many things change in politics and those things that you had thought and that I could not live with, I had an internal depression. What I had created in my mind that we will fight for democracy was actually early on, and I emigrated with the big dream that I would go to Italy and study cinema or theater directing. We must bear in mind that at that time there were not the tools that are available today, you have to do it physically, and that’s how I decided to emigrate. Since the first elections that PD lost, I decided to run away, and I was waiting for the opportunity to run away with some friends. They didn’t come in March. In the 90th in August, it happened that the ship Vlora was running away, and it ran away. I even ran from Ilira to the port of Durrës, I rode on a rope there that was connected to the crane. I was the last to ride, my hands slipped and I fell on people, a woman fell into the sea, an old man broke his arm, I started again. A friend of mine saw me and remembered that I ran away. I climbed off the same rope again, but this time not like an athlete, but scared.
Borakaj: Do you consider yourself lucky or determined?
Budina: Very lucky, as every experience in your life has a great impact on who you will be tomorrow. I call it lucky since I took art, if I had chosen politics I should have chosen other levels of communication and society. From a pet student of the party because at that time it was not simple, going to the immigrant understands the true dimension of life that was not her, she was completely a lie, the real life is completely different.
