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As in the rest of the Balkans, Albania’s post-WWII narrative is of a communist partisan struggle against foreign occupation and, ultimately, of a communist takeover. Yet, Albania's story is unique among Eastern European countries. Dictator Enver Hoxha’s schism first with Yugoslavia and later with the Soviet Union led him to proclaim that the Albanian version of Marxist-Leninism was the only true path to communism. Practicing a strenuous form of Stalinism for nearly 50 years, Albania denounced most Eastern European socialist countries as revisionists, and maintained a strict observance of Hoxha’s own brand of socialist realism. Albanian communists determined that the self-isolation of their country was the only way to implement their puritan brand of state socialism. As a result, foreign influence on Albanian cinema was limited to minute cracks in the thick curtain that separated Albania from the rest of the world. Television broadcasts from neighboring countries (especially from Italy), or rare personal journeys of foreign film professionals to the country were the only moments of rupture. The almost complete reliance on socialist realism in filmmaking during communism has caused many Albanians to reject their own cinematic history as one long ideological indoctrination. More than twenty years have passed since the fall of Hoxha’s regime, yet there is still much resistance to a re-examination of Albania’s state sponsored film productions. For this reason, many have languished in inadequate vaults and are now in danger of being lost forever. The Albanian Cinema Project is working to preserve and restore these films and to open up an international public dialogue that will encourage Albanians and others to view these films in a different light.