Altin Dervishi

Art Pasion...Denied! Altin Dervishi

Dritan, a talented young Albanian artist, was continuously denied the right to study at the Fine Arts University of Albania, by the very strict Albanian Communist officials. This unfair treatment that came at a surprise to him in his early youth during the late 1970's, happened because he was labeled as a bourgeoisie family with "western anti-communist values," or as it was called, "a family with a dark biography" and thus an enemy of the fatherland. As he grew up, Dritan came to learn that his maternal aunt was executed by a firing squad, his maternal uncle was in jail for life, and his father, who had tried to escape, left no trace behind and no one knew if he was dead or alive. Such unfair labeling and chained tragic events, continued to bring all the misfortunes to the rest of Dritan's remaining family for many decades of the Albanian harsh communist dictatorship and kept them in constant fear and humiliation.