Film Screening The Albanian Calls

The Albanian Calls

While working on The Albanian Files(June 2026), an upcoming book on Albanian architecture, Anneke Abhelakh conducted interviews with over 50 international architects currently working in the country. These Zoom-recorded conversations became the foundation for The Albanian Calls, a feature-length video essay. The film captures the discourse surrounding what it means to be an international architect in contemporary Albania, exploring both opportunities and challenges. 

It examines the agency of architects, the shifting relationship between public and private space, and the intersection of architecture and politics. The Albanian Calls investigates how architecture shapes Albania’s emerging identity, while at the same time how the country’s unique architectural environment prompts a reflection on the state of the practice as a whole, as well as on the role of an individual architect working in a foreign country. In alignment with the pavilion’s central theme - Building Architecture Culture - the film is edited as a continuous Zoom conversation, weaving together insights from more than 30 architects. 

This dialogue is interspersed with two archival films from the Albanian National Film Archive (AQSHF): Shqipëria Turistike by Mark Topallaj (1974). This movie was made as a propaganda film to purely attract tourist from a similar Marxist-Leninst ideology in a time when the country was completely isolated from the rest of the world. And the second archival footage from Shqipëria 1991 by Xhovlin Hajati and Reiz Çiço (1991), showing the country at the time.

These historical visuals aim to bridge Albania’s complex past with its evolving future, while at the same time positioning The Albanian Calls as a chronicle of its time.

Interviews: Anneke Abhelakh / Concept: Anneke Abhelakh & Konstanty Konopinski / Edit: Konstanty Konopinski

About Anneke Abhelakh
Anneke is an independent curator, writer and researcher. She started working as an assistant curator, curator and interim chief curator at the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi). At AMO she was in charge of the OMA Progress exhibition at the Barbican in London and worked as head of Public Program at The Berlage in Delft. At ETH Zurich she taught the course Exhibiting Architecture; she conceptualised and coordinated the self evaluation report of 2019 of the D-ARCH ETHZ. At Dropcity in Milan, she launched the public programs On Public Agency (2023) and Architecting the Future (2024). She was the first artistic director at Zentrum Architektur Zürich. In 2025 she curated the Albanian pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale, with the theme Building Architecture Culture. The movie shown tonight was one of three parts of the narrative in the pavilion.

The public program of the Albanian pavilion 2025, produced podcasts on central topics in the build environment. Next to a general introduction we discussed with guests: On Agency, with Andi Eftimi and Elidor Mehilli / Freedom, with Lea Ypi, Nebi Bardoshi and Elisabetta Terragni / Landscape, with Toni Girones, Zydi Teqja and Guust Selhorts / Materiality & Continuity with Adil Bokhari and Eled Fagu / and on Governance with Simon Battisti, Francesca Chiesa Bianchi and Dorina Pojani.

The podcast made in collaboration with Koozarch are to be found here https://koozarch.com/podcasts/building-architecture-culture-albania-at-the-biennale-architettura-2025

Programme

16:30 - 17:00 Doors open

17:00 - 17:20 Welcome by Independent School for the City and introduction by Anneke Abhelakh 

17:20 - 18:40 Film Screening The Albanian Calls (80 min) by Konstanty Konopinski and Anneke Abhelakh

18:40 - 19:00  Conversation with Anneke Abhelakh and the public

19:00 Drinks and aftertalk