Sindi Breshani

As the child of two parents who grew up in a totalitarian regime, I have always been haunted by their account of a system they once worshiped but now recall as an absurd memory from the past. The shadow of the dictatorship still prevails in Albania, not only imposing its presence through the hundreds of bunkers built across the country but also hidden in collective memories of control and manipulation.

My perception of the dictatorship is formed from various pieces of information collected during my upbringing in Albania and is thus distinctly different from that of my parents. I have been hesitant to take the challenge of representing a whole historical period, despite my life-long curiosity. When I began interviewing, the individuals I met moved me completely, and I knew then that I was not going to simply tell the story of the Albanian dictatorship: the world needed to know their stories. Hopefully, my docu-game Diktatura will inspire its audience to detect authoritarian insurgencies and hold power to account.