Bio : Born 1974 in Tirana, Albania. Lives and works in Berlin, Germany.
Description : While clearing out storage boxes from his Tirana apartment on a trip back to Albania from his studies in Paris in 1997, Anri Sala came across an old reel of film. It showed a Communist Party congress with hundreds of Party members applauding their leader, Enver Hoxha. A young woman was ushered on stage beside him. The film cut to an interview between the woman and a journalist. She spoke for a while, finishing the interview with an embarrassed smile. The woman was Sala’s mother, but one thing was missing, there was no soundtrack on the reel. Sala wants to know what his mother was saying. Since no one who was present at the congress can help him, Sala decides to go to a school for the deaf where a deaf-mute, assisted by a teacher, watches the video, lip-reads, and then transcribes the words.