(Sofia/press/hh) The last documentary produced by the Bulgarian film director Adela Peeva, which was since his release in 2007 very successfull in winning several nominations and awards («Best Bulgarian Documentary 2007», «Human Rights Award» at the XIV Sarajevo International Film Festival 2008, Prize of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR Idée Suisse 2008 and many others), won recently again two awards at the South East European Fim Festival in Los Angeles: «Critics Choice Award Best Documentary» and «Audience Choice Award Best Film». INTERFILM wants to congratulate his member Adela Peeva for this wonderful  and succesfull film.

The story of the film (59’/66’), shot in Albania, Russia and Poland, is about love and separation, about families forcibly separated by the totalitarian regime of Enver Hodja – the longest-serving European dictator of the 20th century – only because their wives were foreigners. It takes place in the surreal world of 1960s communist Albania. As told by survivors of this extraordinary period, Divorce Albanian Style reveals the experience of the many thousands of families that were forcibly separated by the totalitarian regime of Enver Hodja, the longest-serving European dictator of the 20th century. Near the height of his mania, in 1961 Enver Hodja broke off Albania’s relations with the Soviet Union. Albanian men married to foreign women were forced by the state to split from their wives – women from all over Eastern Europe - who were subsequently expelled. The official reason was alleged espionage. Hojda quickly created a mechanism to deal with those who refused to leave. KGB-trained secret police collected “evidence”, minor clerks became “investigators”, carpenters were made into prosecutors and labor camps expanded. The women who stayed – and their husbands - spent years in prisons, the last released in 1987. Divorce Albanian Style tells the stories of three of these couples, and of the apparatchiks and officers of the secret police who changed their lives forever.

Adela Peeva holds a degree from the Academy for Film, Theatre and TV in Belgrade. From 1973 till 1990 she worked at the Documentary Film Studio in Sofia. The films of Adela Peeva are always dealing with controversial subjects. Some of her films (“In the name of sport“, “Mothers”) were prohibited by the communist regime. Later on, after the democratic changes the films were screened both in Bulgaria and abroad and awarded. In 1991 she established her own production company „ADELA MEDIA”. From that time dated also her interest about the Balkans. She made the following award wining films on Balkan subjects “Born from the Ashes”, “Right to chose“ “The Unwanted”, “Whose is this Song?” - Nominated for European Film Academy “Best Documentary - Prix ARTE” 2003 award, participated at over 50 International film festivals all over the World and was awarded 16 prizes, ”Divorce Albanian style” - Nominated for European Film Academy “Best Documentary - Prix ARTE” 2007. More information and trailer: www.adelamedia.net.