Living in a Dictatorship

When Albania became Communist religion was banned, travel forbidden and private property outlawed. The punishment scheme for infringement involved internal exile, long term imprisonment and even execution.

In Debora’s 1970s house the most valuable possession was the television for which her father had saved for years. In the only model available the UHF decoder had been disabled so that they could only receive Albanian VHF programmes.

Each night they would use a piece of wire and a sardine tin to fashion an aerial to access UHF programmes. Debora and her family became fluent in Italian by secretly watching music programmes.