A Beautiful--and Horrible--Little Film
Peter Robinson ·
January 20, 2013 at 4:00am
Looking for something to watch this evening? With, perhaps, some historical interest? Try "Mushrooms of Concrete," a brief documentary--it lasts less than half an hour--this is both beautiful and heartbreaking
The mushrooms in question are the three-quarters of a million of domed concrete bunkers that the Communist dictator Enver Hoxha constructed in Albania during the more than four decades of his rule. Yes, three quarters of a million bunkers--in a tiny, poor, backward country, of fewer than three million inhabitants that no other nation ever evinced any interest in invading.
Twenty-five minutes on the beauty of a country enfolded in the mountains on the Adriatic, the dignity of ordinary people--and the madness of Communism.
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Dec '12
Re: A Beautiful--and Horrible--Little Film
The site hosting this documentary has some pretty noisome films too. Consider this description:
I feel unclean just posting that here.
May '10
Re: A Beautiful--and Horrible--Little Film
Can we expect your Cold War book before the apocalypse, Peter?
Jul '11
Re: A Beautiful--and Horrible--Little Film
Eric Jablow: The site hosting this documentary has some pretty noisome films too. Consider this description:
I feel unclean just posting that here. · 29 minutes ago
Yeah, that's a Jim Carrey, Einhorn is a man, toilet plunger cleanse moment in movie previews. I think I'll check out the mushrooms instead.
Edited on January 20, 2013 at 5:13amAug '11
Re: A Beautiful--and Horrible--Little Film
Same question!
Re: A Beautiful--and Horrible--Little Film
Beautiful cinematography. Thanks for posting, Peter.
Albania must be the epicenter of some sort of paranoia field, one extending well beyond the country's boundaries. Last summer, while jogging around the harbor in Pula, Croatia, I found myself in the middle of an abandoned Soviet-era base. Twenty-plus years after the end of the Cold War and the dilapidated guard towers, rusting razor wire--even the overgrown soccer field--gave off a creepy, everyone-left-a-moment-ago vibe.
Re: A Beautiful--and Horrible--Little Film
My new goal: To complete the book in no more time than the Cold War itself lasted. (That gives me another four decades.)
Dec '10
Re: A Beautiful--and Horrible--Little Film
Just think, in another 40 years or so, some earnest young thing can tour our countrysides, interviewing grizzled old men and broken young men while they show them the remains of the giant concrete and steel Healthcare Exchanges, complete with rotting concertina wire and mangled rebar.
Won't that be fun!?!
Sep '10
Re: A Beautiful--and Horrible--Little Film
So before you are 100?
Peter Robinson
My new goal: To complete the book in no more time than the Cold War itself lasted. (That gives me another four decades.) · 9 minutes ago
Oct '10
Re: A Beautiful--and Horrible--Little Film
Paul Krugman would approve.
Apr '11
Re: A Beautiful--and Horrible--Little Film
I occasionally talk about the need for conservatives to be more involved in editing wikipedia. One area where conservatives (not me; I studied, and broadly agreed with, some of Hoxha's doctrinal criticisms of Stalin and Mao, but I don't know much about Albanian history) have fought and severely lost is Hoxha's bio. Read this openly admiring page and be reminded that out there in the ether, there are genuinely horrible ideologies kept alive and prospering in their corners.
Comment #1 also reminds us, of course, and the page is only openly admiring if you put yourself in the mindset of someone who would admire Hoxha; if I recall correctly, before the skirmishes its praises were a little less dog whistled. Still, I think it's worth skimming parts of it.
It does remind me that, in Hoxha's defense, Yugoslavia might have invaded, as might the Soviets. They certainly both had means, motive, and the requisite level of scruples. The problem with the bunkers is that they're totally impractical, the mark of a deranged man, not that the evil regime had no reason to fear the evils of others.
Aug '10
Re: A Beautiful--and Horrible--Little Film
I wouldn't describe Albanians as ordinary people. I'd describe them as people who built a bunch of concrete mushrooms. Hoxha didn't do it all by himself. Dictatees must share some blame for what goes in their countries, and there must come a point in every dictator's career when he exclaims, to himself or maybe even out loud, "Man, this is easier than I thought!"
Jul '11
Re: A Beautiful--and Horrible--Little Film
Thanks for the link, Peter.
I've been to Albania several times, and know the mushrooms well.
My love for Albania is such that I proposed to my Estonian wife there. It's an awesome country, and some of the best people you can meet in Europe. The mountains in the south and the shoreline is better than anything you can find pretty much anywhere. Will go again.
Jul '11
Re: A Beautiful--and Horrible--Little Film
Uh, huh.
So, Estonians are to blame as well for 50 years of dictatorship?
Sep '10
Re: A Beautiful--and Horrible--Little Film
My wife went on a short-term mission trip to Albania in the early 90's. She said most of the "concrete mushrooms" she saw were being used as make shift toilets.
May '10
Re: A Beautiful--and Horrible--Little Film
That sounds like a potential tourist industry. I bet there are many people in the world who would pay money to dump on communism. ;)
Re: A Beautiful--and Horrible--Little Film
James Of England:
It does remind me that, in Hoxha's defense, Yugoslavia might have invaded, as might the Soviets. They certainly both had means, motive, and the requisite level of scruples. The problem with the bunkers is that they're totally impractical, the mark of a deranged man, not that the evil regime had no reason to fear the evils of others. · 7 hours ago
There is zero evidence of which I'm aware that the Soviets ever considered invading Albania. (They would have had to cross Yugoslavia to do so, never an option.) They lost a naval installation when Albania switched its allegiances from the Soviets to the Chinese, but they simply...let it go.
Tito in Yugoslavia would of course have represented a more plausible threat, but as far as I have ever been able to tell, he more than had his hands full controlling the Albanian and Greek elements in Macedonia--and in any event never had any good reason to tie up his armed forces in invading a dirt-poor nation of no strategic importance. But if you're aware of episodes suggesting otherwise, I'd love to hear about them.
Jul '12
Re: A Beautiful--and Horrible--Little Film
I first read about these apocalypse shrooms in a piece P.J. O'Rourke wrote, having traveled to ALbania as its economy was tanking--it had apparently reacted to capitalism by setting up everything, private and public, like a Ponzi scheme.
You just don't know where to start with some places.
(O'Rourke's piece was reprinted in the wonderfully named Eat the Rich.)
Edited on January 20, 2013 at 8:18pmAug '10
Re: A Beautiful--and Horrible--Little Film
Hoxha and Ceausescu , couple of real sweethearts there . No wonder that Tito looked good.
Love to hear what Pacepa thinks of Hoxha. His book about Rumania is amazing. The film about Ceausescu is bleakly understated ,but anybody with a camera or pencil was probably suspect.
Hoxha ran a tight bloody ship as well, some of these monsters will go under-reported as they drew the curtains around their countries and their activities very tightly. And then the international press acquiesced of course, this was Uncle Joe's experiment...over to you Mr Duranty.
Aug '10
Re: A Beautiful--and Horrible--Little Film
EstoniaKat
So, Estonians are to blame as well for 50 years of dictatorship?
I see "must share some" got turned into "are to" and I am tempted to opine on the practices taught in American J-schools, but darn it I won't. If one will but accept my original phrasing, then yes, Estonians, having been dictatees, must share some blame. Not 100%; but not 0% either. And this gives me two ideas.
One is to write about how countries cope with distinctly unheroic recent pasts. Being American and therefore lucky, I am highly unqualified for the job. But I could venture some observations on Latin American countries, and also Slovenia.
The other idea is really a guess: if being an American actually becomes a qualification for undertaking such a series, if the worst dreams of the most pessimistic contributors here come true, and the U.S. itself becomes a dictatorship, then those contributors will not simply say Hey we did all we could, we are guiltless, but castigate themselves for not doing more. They will accept some blame for what America became. I know I would.
Oct '11
Re: A Beautiful--and Horrible--Little Film
Thanks, Peter...a very twisted ugly beautiful testiment.