The Death of a Horse

Programme

• Film: The Death of a Horse (Vdekja e kalit) (Saimir Kumbaro, AL 1992, 82')

  For four decades, Albania was Eastern Europe’s most secretive regime. For millions of Albanians living within its sealed borders, daily life was far from the socialist paradise lensed by the state-run New Albania film studio. Albania's first post-communist film, The Death of a Horse (1992), vividly captures the Balkan nation's traumatic past while reflecting on the tremendous social and economic challenges to come.
  
  Crafted months after the dictatorship’s fall, the low-budget film was shot on Kodak and developed on AGFA. This fateful choice caused Cannes to remove it from competition for not meeting the festival's technical standards. The Death of a Horse is based on a true story. A military horse trainer tries to save his championship horse and ends up caught in a personal catastrophe, the kind that affected thousands of lives in Communist Albania.

• Presentation: Preserving Cinema's Secret Past: Albania's The Death of a Horse

  Filmmaker Iris Elezi (Albanian Cinematheque) presents the restoration of The Death of a Horse which was supported by the Association of European Cinematheques and the Creative MEDIA program. Preserving the vital and dramatic The Death of a Horse is a perfect example of archival collaboration: its damaged negative was rescued in the nick of time in order to find new audiences and rightfully take its unique place in the film canon.