The Myth of Enver Hoxha in the Albanian Cinema of Socialist Realism: An Inquiry into the Psychoanalitical Features of the Myth

Abstract

Although the mythological status of Enver Hoxha became fundamental in the political identity of communist Albania from 1944 to 1990, the absence of the Hoxha character in the Albanian feature films produced during communism begs the question: why did Enver Hoxha exclude his character from feature films? Both his role model, Stalin, and his nemesis, Tito, were incarnated in feature films produced in the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, respectively.1 However, though Hoxha appeared in many documentaries, several requests by filmmakers to impersonate his character received negative responses. To answer this question requires understanding the myth of Hoxha. Hoxha built his own myth by combining elements from the myths of the Stalin and Tito with idiosyncratic features suggested by the Albanian historical context as well as his own psychopathology. Whereas Stalin appropriated the archetype of the caring father and Tito appropriated the archetype of the die-hard military commander, Hoxha decided to personify the divine heroic son. Th e Albanian cinema helped generate a stereotype of the positive hero who still looked submissive to the ever-elusive divine image of the great leader. Although some elements of this myth might resemble the Stalin myth, it diff ers in that Hoxha did not appropriate a paternal role to his nation. By the same token, while his panegyrists oft en referred to Hoxha as “the legendary commander,” an idea appropriated from Tito, Hoxha himself looked uncomfortable in such a position. Th erefore, the Albanian political cinema of communism can be better understood as the reflection and constructor of a social reality dominated by Hoxha’s presence as a ubiquitous mystic divinity that supervised society. Th at divinity was