The Silent Country
a film by Ryan Johnson
Where silence endures, memory becomes resistance.
For nearly half a century, Albania was among the most isolated and brutal communist states. Under Enver Hoxha’s dictatorship, thousands were executed, tens of thousands imprisoned, and families—including women, children, and the elderly were interned in barbed-wire camps such as Tepelenë, Porto Palermo, and Berat. Their crime? Simply, existing with the "wrong" lineage.
This is their story
In postwar Europe, only Albania built a concentration camp for it’s own children…
Hidden in the hills of Tepelenë, thousands of women and children were imprisoned by Albania’s communist regime — starved, silenced, and forgotten as the world looked away. Today, the site lies in ruins, overgrown and unmarked.
The Silent Country follows survivors who return to this landscape of absence, searching for traces of their childhood and the graves of those who never left.
Simon Mirakaj
Survivor of Kampi Tepelenë — born in prison, interned for 45 years
“The children’s voices reverberated through the barracks
‘Mother, I’m hungry!’ they cried.
The mothers had nothing to give them but their tears.
Eventually, the children would fall asleep,
exhausted from hunger.”
“I remember how my father told me the day he left, “You are the oldest at thirteen. Elmija is twelve, Shemsadin is nine. You are the mother of these children now. If I leave your mother here they will intern all of you. You are children so they wouldn’t dare intern you alone.”
But we were interned… ”
— Mine
The past does’nt disappear, it’s just well hidden.
Some memories refuse to stay buried. They rise, rusted and silent, into the hands of those too young to understand.
