It is a moving encyclopedia. If you want to know something about the history of Albanian film, she can tell you everything. Graduated in French, specializing in archival science in Paris, Irena Asqeriu is passionately devoted to archives. He has been working at the Central State Film Archive for a little over 9 years, where he is doing an extraordinary job in collecting, systematizing, documenting, computerizing the archives of this institution. Except this work for him is not a routine. She has one more reason why she is in love with the movie.

When he started working for the first time at AQSHF, after many years of working at the Central State Archive, the first task was to deal with the protocol and documents coming from the various institutions, the technical-scientific processing of documents and the creation of storage units, for ease the inventory. But then many “keys” were left in his hands. Day after day she began to discover the treasures that were hidden there, and with her the institution itself.

When we meet him at the premises of the AQSHF, he first directs us to the library rich in books and cinematographic catalogs in the Albanian language, as well as foreign ones, which come from various festivals, from FIAF, the International Organization of Film Archives, where Albania became a full member in 1970.

The eye takes in carefully arranged files everywhere. Rule seems to be one of Irena’s concerns. She has a personal schedule to work: after work in the protocol, 3 hours in the photo library, 2 hours in the library… Everything is put on the computer, according to a scheme, which she is completing very patiently to record every element that serves to find the given material. “When I came here, the archives were unsystematized and I have systematized 22 years of archives, in files, with events,” she tells us.

“Communicating with researchers and filmmakers, seeing their needs for scripts, I started to organize them, collecting them in the archive, where we have a very rich fund of literary scripts, which have not been realized, for feature films and documentaries; scripts that have been put into production, but due to time, for various reasons, have not been released; photographs, minutes of meetings. We have a collection of meetings that were held in manuscript.” If you want to know why a movie didn’t get made, you can find out there, with a very quick search. “The scenarios are very interesting. I found some in the Library, with an inventory from 1974, after I processed, studied and organized them”, she says, while opening folder after folder of pages yellowed by time and sometimes filled with regular calligraphy fast.

“Here we also have Ismail Kadare’s 1963 script, which was not realized. It is “The general of the dead army”. 12 years later, in 1975, an Albanian Radio Television film was made, directed by Vladimir Prifti, and in 1989, “The General of the Dead Army” was transformed into “The Return of the Dead Army” by Dhimitër Anagnosti. This is the script, on which efforts have been made to make more films. There was another Italian film and another Albanian-Italian-French film that was cancelled. I also have the interviews of the staff who came to Albania”, she says, as she explains in detail the work she does and the contents of each file.

She has not found everything in that library in the premises where she works. Filling the fund has become a goal for him, so he leaves no chance without collecting and enriching files.

“I got a part of these materials at Alba Film Studio. In 1997, the Central Film Archive was separated from AlbaFilm Studio and the material base was also divided. Unfortunately, there are many materials left there, which we would like to withdraw, as they will have more value here”. It was precisely there that he found an early collection of the “Drita” Magazine, which once belonged to the League of Writers and Artists. They were neglected, but she cleaned them, quarantined them, so they wouldn’t contaminate the rest of the fund, and then added to the fund.

“The systematization of the filmmakers’ personal funds has given me a special satisfaction. I have systematized everything I could find, newspaper articles, letters, with certain references… Here you can find treasures about the lives of filmmakers and Kinostudio employees. I found 1300 photos of former employees of Kinostudio, they are behind the scenes who worked day and night for the realization of the premiere. It took me 3 months to identify them”.

He also systematized documents of the former Kinostudio, took them from the filmmakers themselves, so that they would be preserved even when they are no longer around. “The systematization of Kinostudio’s Photo Library has given me a lot of satisfaction, because they have made a great contribution. Here are all of them, from the first Albanian film, “place” for which three films “Skënderbeu”, “Her children” and “Tana” are competing. If the first is a collaboration with the former Soviet Union, the second a thesis, “Tana” is the film that should really be called The First. I have a very interesting fact about the latter. I found a letter from the director Kristaq Dhamo, which showed how he had lost the negative of the film “Tana”. The first copy of the film “Tana had gone to Germany to be processed and he claims that he is lost here, in Rinas, but he may not have returned from Germany. And he was forced to find footage and “pieces” of films, which made the film we have today. We have found a film “Tana” in Germany, which may be the one that, due to the politics of the time, was not returned. Director Iris Elezi is insisting on bringing it here, as she wants to do a digital restoration of the film. We have the double negative and it’s the only film that doesn’t have the original. Maybe it’s the one from Germany”, says the specialist.

But the photo library is the sector that is most close to her heart. 52 thousand photos are stored there. It took him 3 years of work to systematize it, and it’s still not finished. Every day there are new pictures. It took a lot of work. Knowledge in archival and history was needed, but why not also have life experience, but above all love and a lot of passion for work.

There are collections of photo evidence, photos of actors, places, filming locations, evidence of Albania before the 1990s. There are over 18,000 photos of rehearsals and filming locations. Very interesting are the movie albums. The first file he shows us is the movie “In our house”. There’s a reason why he’s telling us that. Irena Asqeriu is the wife of the actor Bujar Asqeriu and she naturally developed a love for film. “I was just familiar with Bujar”, she says, showing us the pictures when he was a young Holak boy, playing the role of Fatos.

It can be about 20 thousand movie stills. But there are also files with photos from political and social life: patriots, revivalists, politicians, Anti-Fascist National Liberation War; photographs that have been used in documentary films, that have been collected from all over; photographs of cities; Kinostudio file, construction, inauguration, by departments, groups of employees; costume design files…

A whole property, which researchers and students have begun to use, even those interested in property matters, who need photographs, where a film was once made…

Irena was right, apart from the movies, there is an extraordinary wealth stored there, which she, as a good host, is bringing to light. To be an archive specialist, you must know some “mastery secrets” and Irena Asqeriu knew them.