This chapter explores the establishment of a socialist film industry in Albania following the birth of the communist state. It examines early works in the newsreel and documentary genres, which, for the country's first decade, constituted its sole film output. These years saw the consolidation of the People's Republic of Albania and the formation of the Warsaw Pact, of which Albania was a founding member. During this period, Albania had strong ties with the Soviet Union, which considered it a very strategic ally given its proximity to the West. The newsreels and documentaries produced by Albania gave strong voice to the triumphs of the young state, and this was framed in the context of Albanian-Soviet friendship. Films for entertain-ment were imported, a good number from the Soviet Union. Given that the new Kinostudio had few trained professionals, and moreover, was not yet in a position to provide its own training, future film artists and technicians were sent abroad to study in the Soviet Union, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. This chapter will discuss the first cohort of these students. Although brief mention will be made here of Stalinist film practices, references to Enver Hoxha's views on the arts and cinema will be reserved for Chapter III, given that these topics stem from Hoxha's speeches and documents of the 1960s and 1970s, as well from a contemporaneous Kinostudio manifesto.

The foregoing discussion will primarily proceed in chronological order, though not exclusively.