Here Be Dragons (2013)

Filmmaker Mark Cousins goes to Albania for five days and films what he sees He discovers that the movie prints in the countrys film archive are decaying In investigating this Cousins begins to encounter bigger questions about the history and memory of a place Perhaps a country whose 20th Century dominated by its authoritarian ruler Enver Hoxha was so traumatic should allow its film heritage to fade away Perhaps a national forgetting should be welcomed Influenced by the films of Chris Marker Cousins film broadens to consider the architecture of dictators and the great icon paintings of Onufri In the past when cartographers knew little about a country they wrote on it Here be Dragons Albania was for decades one of the least well know countries in the world Cousins road movie meditation takes the advice of Goethe If you would understand the poet you must go to the poets land