Llazi Sërbo was an Albanian movie and theater actor and later director. His forty years long activity included around 100 roles. Sërbo will be particularly remembered for the films Yjet e Neteve te gjata and Operacioni Zjarri , whereas he also played an excellent German Wehrmacht official in the movie Nusja dhe shtetrrethimi . Sërbo was granted the Merited Artist of Albania award in 1991 and the Nderi i Qarkut award in 2009. Sërbo had suffered for a long time from depression and committed suicide on 12 September 2010, following the example of the other well-known Albanian actor, Bekim Fehmiu, who had also killed himself three months earlier.
Early life
Sërbo was born in 1945 in the city ofKorçë, where he finished the elementary and high school. After high school he worked as a painting teacher in the town of Pogradec. After two years of teaching he attended the Academy of Arts in Tirana, where he profitably studied acting in the following four years.
Career
Sërbo was for the following forty years an actor and director in the Andon Z. Çajupi theatre of Korçë. He also had prominent roles in many movies produced by the Albanian Kinostudio Shqipëria e Re. His first role in theatre was in the Njollat e murrme drama. He also acted in many Albanian films. His first role in a movie was in Yjet e Neteve te gjata , where he actually did not pronounce a single word, His first starring role came in the Operacioni Zjarri film , where Sërbo had the role of Kreshnik Martini, a Sigurimi agent, infiltrated into an anti-communist band operating in northern Albania in 1953, a scenario taken from a real story. After that movie, Sërbo was one of the victims of the 1973 purges of the 11th Plenum of the Communist Party of Albania, which caused him to disappear from any movies for a full four-year period: during this time he played only on theatre roles. Upon his return to cinematography, he continued to excel in all the roles he played. Memorable is the role of the GermanWehrmacht official in the Nusja dhe shtetrrethimi film . Sërbo was considered to be a handsome actor and never passed unobserved in his movies, rather his presence was felt. In addition to his good appearance, he was often said by movie directors to be a perfectionist in his approach to acting. In the Kush vdes në këmbë movie , dedicated to the figure of 19th century patriot and Albanian language teacher, Petro Nini Luarasi, Sërbo refused to show up at the rehearsals and threatened to leave the cast and travel back to his hometown, because he had not been given the right shoes to play his part, that of Ajaz Gjika, a kachak. Sërbo demanded 19th century shoes so that he could fit perfectly in the character. Sërbo also demanded and obtained an excellent horse to play the movie, rather than the one which he had initially been given, because, according to him, "the horse should have a fierce character, similar to that of his master". The horse that ended up playing the movie was, in fact, of an excellent breed, because movie director, Vladimir Prifti, in order to please the actor, found a way to "recruit" the grand-grandchild of Naklon, a horse donated by Joseph Stalin to Albania in the 1950s. The horse had a cost that would today be the equivalent of $2–3 million. In 1986, one year after Enver Hoxha's death, Sërbo moved to Tirana, where he started to work as an assistant director and had the chance to co-direct a number of movies. He also worked as a director in the theater. Sërbo was critical in the last years with the fact that, according to him, there are more actors than premieres. Sërbo was the author of the mise-en-scène of Kostandine and Doruntine and co-scenarist of the theatrical piece with the Albanian well-known writer Ismail Kadare. Sërbo had suffered from chronic depression of which he was under cures. Nevertheless, therapies notwithstanding, he killed himself with his hunting rifle on September 12, 2010 and was found dead in the morning after at his house in Korçë. He was 65 and died a bachelor. He had prior confided to one of his close friends that he wished to have a death similar to that of another famous Albanian actor, Bekim Fehmiu, who had committed suicide three months before Sërbo's death. Besides acting, Sërbo cherished photography as a hobby. He was a participant in the Albanian photography competition Marubi 2003. Sërbo had been awarded the Merited Artist of Albania award in 1991 and the Nderi i Qarkut award in 2009.
