A luxury resort project backed by Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump has sparked controversy on Albania’s southern coast after construction began near the protected Narta Lagoon.
Residents and environmental activists have protested the development, clashing with private security guards. One protester was dragged away by guards while police, despite a heavy presence, did not intervene.
Protesters are demanding a halt to construction, transparency over permits and environmental impacts, and an end to what they describe as a “national betrayal” — the privatization of public Albanian land for foreign luxury development.
Filmmaker Park Chan-wook states, “I don’t think politics and art should be divided.”
“I think it’s a strange concept to think that they’re in conflict with each other. Just because a work of art has a political statement, it should not be considered an enemy of art. At the same time, just because a film is not making a political statement, that film should not be ignored. Even if we are to make a brilliant political statement, if it’s not expressed artfully enough, it would just be propaganda. So what I want to say is that art and politics are not concepts that are in conflict with each other, as long as they are artistically expressed, they are valuable.”