Press Release

++Around 200 people attended Blue Heart movie screening this Sunday in Tirana – The movie  will travel to  Vjosa valley communities.++

Tirana, May 7, 2018. “The Blue Heart” movie was screened last night in Tirana for the Albanian public at Cinema Millennium. The Albanian Premiere brought together about 200 people from Tirana and other cities of Albania, friends of Vjosa, representatives of state authorities, Albanian and international civil society organizations, activists for Vjosa and Balkan rivers protection, professors and students, etc.

The film of Patagonia, Californian Sportswear Company (by Farm League) shows the ongoing fight of local communities and Balkan activists to protect their rivers from the massive development of hydropower projects with about 3,000 HPPs planned to be built in the whole peninsula. In a 40 minutes’ movie, the stories of Albania, Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina are documented, in support of the campaign for the protection of the Balkan rivers, “Save the Blue Heart of Europe”. The story of Vjosa’s defense is that of Kuta inhabitants, Albanian activists and the successful legal battle against the construction of the Poçemi HPP.

The movie will travel to the Vjosa Valley and will be screened for the affected communities by the HPPs in: Kuta (May 7), Përmet (May 8), Tepelena (May 9), Qesarat (Memaliaj / May), Selenica (May 12th), as well as in Shkodra (May 14th). The Croatian company “Via Solis” will screen the movie during the whole tour to come. Solar energy will be used for the screenings, as in other countries of the Balkans where the Solar Bus traveled the past week.

“The Blue Heart” movie has been translated into 14 languages and will be screened in over 500 countries worldwide. Patagonia, already with its own campaign in defense of the “Blue Heart of Europe”, has also launched a petition calling on international banks not to finance hydropower projects in the Balkans. Over 100,000 people have signed the petition so far.

  Background information:

• • This is a joint press release by Riverwatch, EuroNatur, and the EcoAlbania

• • Find more information about the film on the website   “The dam truth”

• The film ‘Blue Heart’ supports the campaign “Save the Blue Heart of Europe” campaign, which aims to protect the most valuable rivers in the Balkans from a dam tsunami of about 2,800 planned projects. The campaign is coordinated by the NGOs Riverwatch and EuroNatur and carried out together with partner organisations in the Balkan countries. In Albania, the local partner is EcoAlbania. Find more information at http://balkanrivers.net/

  Further information

  Olsi Nika, EcoAlbania
  [email protected], +355 69 294 4757

  Cornelia Wieser, Riverwatch
  [email protected], +43 650 4544784

  Theresa Schiller, EuroNatur
  [email protected], +49 7732 927212