God created rocks to be split by lightning,

God created wood to be destroyed by rain and wind,

God created Albanians to endure all this.

This was the motto of the film Biografii, Albanian stories that I made in 1999- 2000, a film about a severely tested country in transition. (VPRO Film Fund – Prix Europa/Berlin 2001)

20 years later, in October 2019, I went to Albania again. I wanted to know how the people have fared over the past 20 years. With a contribution from the Film Fund, I was able to do new research. Then Covid threw a spanner in the works…

In October 2024, producer DocEye Film submitted a new application to the Film Fund for In the Shadow of the Eagle, a film about the new Albania, where behind the facades of shiny buildings lies another life to discover.

Twenty years ago, a true exodus took place, people sought refuge in countries where they hoped to find a future. And this flow of emigrants has not dried up at all, young people are leaving the country en masse, legally or illegally. Due to the underlying tension, people are losing their hope for a better future. Will the Albanians succeed in stepping out of the shadow of the past?