“Tirana from the air”, the spectacular change of the capital, captured in a photo-album documentary.

"Tirana from the Air" is the documentary presenting the spectacular changes of the capital, through photos taken by the aerial photographer Alket Islami, summarized in an album with views of Tirana in the 90s, compared with the capital of today.

Prime Minister Edi Rama was also present at the screening of the documentary:

I trust you are not willing to handle an hour of speech, so I will speak only a few words, because after all, this is a book presentation, unlike the usual ones and where everyone talks on roundtables and no one hears what the author's vision, which have had the "misfortune" of being attended by me.

That's why I gave up going to normal presentations. When Alketi came and told me that he wanted to present the book, the first condition was; no round tables, no standing people, and no peanuts.

I have nothing to add about Tirana. I have no conflict of interest if I invite you to buy the book before you go home. It is a contribution towards this flying witness of Tirana, but also of Albania more widely, but also towards all the other the birds that he has inspired around him which spend the day that we usually spend on the ground, in the air above our heads, giving us the opportunity to have this kind of heritage that, seen in Alketi's albums, takes a special importance.

Unfortunately, an accident, for which I am not authorized to give details, burned a part of this archive that belonged to Tirana in the 90s and therefore we did not have the opportunity to include it in the book, even though it would be a great honor to evince the contrast between two different eras, a contrast which would be flagrantly evident, something which we modestly, tried to do with the old photographs that came in the hand of my better half, as a result of the magnetism that she evinces for collecting artifacts Tirana's history.

In the end, I want to say that this is the story of a city that has not yet told everything, I believe that in the next 5-6 years we will see more, because there are still many projects and still a lot of ambition and there is also a kind of competition that has entered into the spirit of entrepreneurship to construct not simply strong buildings, but also beautiful ones, giving Tirana the opportunity to become a touristic architectural destination. An architectural destination, a place in the middle of the Balkans, that will have a collection of architectural works gathered together by the best architects, not just the most famous, because there are also famous ones who are not good. That will create a worthy legacy for the next generations.

Thank you very much for your patience and I want to thank Erion for his work, for his words and above all I want to thank what Machiavelli says, that it is half the journey of a leader, which is in a way the fate of Tirana too, to create a possibility of complete alchemy and intense interaction based on a mutual understanding and shared vision between the government and the municipality, which has been key in this story. So, I do not doubt that if today we feel the satisfaction for having come out of that terrible scum upon which we built a new century in Tirana, tomorrow we will be residents of one of the most beautiful capitals of Europe and definitely, without question, Tirana should become the most attractive metropolis in the Balkans and will be the European capital of our entire region. Thank you!