Tirana during the Italian Fascist occupation of Albania, World War II. Jaçe, Lelo, Tomi and Sulo are kids aged 12-13, living in an all-boys orphanage led by a principal who is a Fascist collaborator. They are woken up in the middle of the night to clean up anti-fascist slogans on walls in the street, but accidentally also wipe out a pro-fascist slogan with Mussolini on it. They spot a youngster, Aliu, shooting a Fascist on the street and running away. Since the caregiver often slaps them, one of the kid ties a rope in the orphanage, the caregiver trips down the stairs, breaking his arm. The kids don't want to snitch the perpetrator, so the administration punishes them with no food until they do. Sulo wants to escape during the night, but is shot on the wall by the Fascist police because it is a curfew. The Fascists decide to blame the caretaker and give kids food, trying to gain their sympathy. A teacher, Loni, gives a kid Communist leaflets to spread them. When three kids paint anti-fascist slogans on the orphanage, the principal expels them to the street. Aliu assassinates the principal.
Widely respected as one of the classics of Albanian cinema, Dhimiter Anagnosti's film adaptation of allegedly autobiographical elements of Petraq Qafëzezi's novel "The Orphanage", "Red Poppies on Walls" shows World War II from the Albanian perspective, which, in turn, is seen through the perspective of the 12-13-year old boys in an orphanage administrated by a Fascist principal, and thus the institution becomes a symbol for the Fascist occupation of Albania as a whole: from authoritarianism, imperialism, assimilation, the dilemma of whether to follow morals or orders, up to a denial of any kind of pluralism (all the boys have their hair cut semi-bald, in identical fashion), everything is presented here if the viewers are able to decipher them. Overlong, with a slow pace, and only sporadically showing a sense for being cinematic in a few frames, "Red Poppies on Walls" still manage to ignite the attention of the viewers thanks to its little details depicting life back in those days, even managing to keep the state-ordered Communist propaganda to the minimum.
One such detail is the attempt at Italianization of the Albanian kids, when an Italian woman (Pavlina Mani) with a big hat is brought to be the new teacher in the classroom, and she tries to teach them how to sing in Italian, but then gives up and angrily leaves the institution due to disruption. One of the boys later on makes fun of her in front of his friends in the bedroom, by holding a carton on top of his head and imitating her dignified walk, saying in Italian: "I can't, I can't! Oh my God, it's impossible! Pasta, Luigi...!" After the prank in which the caregiver falls downstairs, the orphanage administration punishes them with no food until they reveal the perpetrator. The cook then laments to the caregiver how this is not correct behavior: "They are beaten with one hand, while the other takes away their food... Discipline does not mean hitting." - "It does and it doesn't". The Fascist principal holds these kind of exaggerated speeches in front of the kids: "Fascism cannot tolerate injustice! Fascism is the child of justice!... You will be grateful, because our efforts to grant you a better life never end!" In the sequence where the principal takes aim at teacher Loni (whom he deliberately misaddresses with an Italian version of his name, "Leone") in his office, questioning why he is opposing orders, Loni gives a powerful, intelligent reply: "When orders violate the basic principles of humanity, it is my duty to oppose them!" Even though the ending is a little bit unsatisfactory, and the character development is pushed in the background for the sake of a collective memory of a historic timeline, the movie grows on you the longer you watch it.
Grade:+++
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