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RISE & FALL OF COMRADE ZYLO

SHKËLQIMI DHE RËNIA E SHOKUT ZYLO

By Fatmir KOÇI

ALBANIAN NATIONAL CENTER OF CINEMATOGRAPHY - as FIN

Drama - Completed 2022

- Year of production
- 2022
- Genres
- Drama
- Countries
- ALBANIA
- Languages
- ALBANIAN
- Budget
- N/A
- Duration
- 119 mn
- Director(s)
- Fatmir KOÇI
- Writer(s)
- Fatmir KOÇI, Mike DOWNEY, Jonathan PREECE
- Cast
- Alex SEITAJ, Donald SHEHU, Enisa HYSA, Xhoana KARAJ, Amos ZAHARIA, Jorida META, Petrit MALAJ, Endri CELA, Samuel VARGU, Mateo LLUPA
- Producer(s)
- Fatmir KOÇI (KKOÇI PRODUCTIONS ), Dritan HUQI (ONFILM PRODUCTIONS )
- Synopsis
- In 1970s Albania’s top cultural institute Comrade ZYLO is a tyrannical bureaucrat. He orders the talented writer DEMKA to compose a major speech on contemporary ideological issues. Comrade Q, ZYLO’s boss, asks DEMKA the same. At a big conference it’s ZYLO who shines, but Comrade Q who fails. DEMKA is criticized by Comrade Q – and stricken with guilt, because if ZYLO fails, so does he. ZYLO assumes the role of the state censor and bans the play ‘The Storm is Defeated’ by ADEM ADASH, a writer who supports the dictatorship. CLEOPATRA, ADEM ADASH’s flirtatious wife, wins ZYLO’s heart – and he takes her, along with DEMKA, to visit Africa to promote socialism. On their return Comrade ZYLO creates the legend of CLEOPATRA’s surreal romance that magnifies his ‘creative and masculine genius’. DEMKA sees that he’s become the slave of a Machiavellian propaganda master – he watches ZYLO strut the political stage, glorying in his megalomanic genius. In this absurdist world DEMKA realizes he is falling in love with ZYLO’s wife, ADILA. At the peak of his power ZYLO and ADILA go to the dentist. Dreaming about being promoted to the highest ranks – either in Europe or Africa – ZYLO gets two golden teeth planted in his mouth. DEMKA is left with the crucial question: will he be able to write again?