Two TV series, four films and six documentaries produced by Radio Televisione Italiana (RAI) will be broadcast next year on Radio Television of Kosovo (RTK), in the original language Italian with subtitles in the two official languages of Kosovo. This happens thanks to a special project promoted by the Directorate General for Public and Cultural Diplomacy of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI), in cooperation with the Italian Embassy in Pristina, the Italian Cultural Institute in Tirana, also responsible for Kosovo, and RAICom, the subsidiary of the RAI Group promoting and distributing the RAI content rights in Italy and worldwide.
The “bundle” includes premium, recent productions such as the TV series “Cuori – Hearts” and “Mina Settembre”, the movies “L’ombra del giorno – Shadow of the Day”, “Il diritto alla felicità – The right to happiness”, “Tina Anselmi”, “Carosello Carosone”, as well as the documentaries “Sergio Marchionne”, “Enzo Ferrari”, “Fellini. Io sono un clown – I am a clown”, “Infinito. L’universo di Luigi Ghirri”, “Ezio Bosso” and “Lion’s Share”. The programmes will be broadcast in prime time or at times of high visibility, simultaneously on RTK 1, with subtitles in Albanian, an on RTK 2, with Serbian subtitles.
The signing of the agreement took place today in Pristina, at the headquarters of Kosovo’s public TV, in the presence of the Prime Minister Albin Kurti, Director General of RTK Shkumbin Ahmetxhekaj, the Italian Ambassador Antonello De Riu and the Director of the Italian Cultural Institute of Tirana Alessandro Ruggera. A mirror contract will be signed between RTK and RAICom in the coming days.
“Through outstanding entertainment products guaranteed by the RAI brand we wish to bring the Kosovar public closer to the Italian language and culture. An initiative that also implies a political message, as demonstrated by the focus on the two official languages of the country, making Italy once again a bridge between the communities of Kosovo, which we desire to coexist in peace and integrated”, Ambassador De Riu and Director Ruggera explain.
“We are deeply graeful to the Embassy and the Italian Cultural Institute for this project, with which Italy confirms its support for public tv in Kosovo, a television that intends to speak to everyone without distinction. There is a large demand for Italy in Kosovo and, through the productions we have selected, such as those on Enzo Ferrari, Federico Fellini, Renato Carosone or the 80th anniversary of the Venice Film Festival, I am convinced that interest will increase even more”, RTK’s General Director Ahmetxhekaj adds.
Flagship products of the “Italian cycle” that will be broadcast on RTK in 2024 are the two TV series “Cuori – Hearts” and “Mina Settembre”, both produced in 2021, whose episodes have been watched by millions of viewers in Italy. In the first series, the story takes place in Turin in the late 1960s, where a group of cardiologists strive to revolutionise medicine by experimenting with new techniques, so to save as many lives as possible, at the same time torn between job and often conflicting feelings. The second TV series, loosely based on stories by writer Maurizio De Giovanni, is centred on a social worker, Mina, employed in a family counselling centre in the historic centre of Naples, divided between the constant search for solutions to other people’s problems and her quite precarious love life.
