Street Remzi Ademaj 4

The social enterprise and cinema Bistrica/Lumbardhi Cinema opened on February 1, 1952, to a crowd of seven hundred citizens. It was popular for its screening of antifascist films and Westerns. In less than a decade, it became one of three cinemas in the Balkans with both indoor and outdoor screens.

Together with the workers’ cinema, Kino Radnik, the institution sold over 500,000 tickets annually. In the 1990s, with the emergence of video clubs and VHS, and the decline of political cooperation in the country, the cinema experienced a decrease in admissions and ceased its activity three days before the March bombings in 1999.

Its ownership was later given over to the Privatization Agency of Kosovo, and Prizren ceased to have a single cinema. The demand from citizens for reviving Lumbardhi took place at the first edition of DokuFest film festival in 2002. In 2007 the mayor of Prizren announced the decision to demolish the cinema in order to build a new parking lot. In response, the initiative for the protection of Lumbardhi Cinema emerged, and after a long struggle Lumbardhi Cinema was taken off the privatization list and deemed a cultural heritage site.