Former immigrant brings home ancient secret to crafting high-end Venetian carnival masks

Описание: (6 Feb 2026)
ASSOCIATED PRESS -
Shkoder, Albania - 6 February 2026

1. Close of pull focus from mask's eye to masks in the background
2. Various of man browsing masks for sale
3. Various of masks
4. Tilt down from painting to mask
5. Pan left of showroom
6. Close mask
7. Tilt up of factory manager Erton Rrukaj walking in showroom
8. Various of Rrukaj arranging the masks
9. Pull focus between masks
10. SOUNDBITE (Albanian) Erton Rrukaj, manager of Venice Art Mask factory: ++SHOT PANS TO MASKS++
"Within a year, we can reach about 20,000 different masks which we export around the world, mainly they go to Venice where we also have our own shops, but also collaborations where we send them to America, Australia, or anywhere in the world. Our masks are diverse models, from the oldest ones, the Venetian masks "Commedia dell'arte" "Bauta", "Zanni", the old models, continuing with other models that are used for decoration, with feathers, Macrame models that you can see here, so a great variety. Normally, we also have the famous Tom Cruise mask here, which was used in the famous movie Eyes Wide Shut."

11. Various of the mask worn by Tom Cruise in "Eyes Wide Shut"
12. Pan of workers in a mask factory
13. Various of workers decorating masks
14. Wide of worker placing hat on another worker's head
15. Various of worker hand painting mask
16. Wide of factory
17. Tilt up from masks to the worker
18. Close of worker applying gold leaf to mask
19. SOUNDBITE (Albanian) Nora Gjonaj, Venice Art Mask factory employee:
"I started working in 1997. When I started, I was impressed by what these masks and these things were. But everything in this life is learned, we started working and everything went well. Now tourists have also started to come and visit us a lot and are very surprised, they say how is it possible to make Venetian masks in Shkoder? This is a wonderful job and we like it. It is artistic work, beautiful work. As for the processes, here we have many processes, where it starts from the mask mould, and the papier-mâché is made. So all the workers here have their own processes. If the mask is bigger, it takes longer to create the mask, while if it is smaller, it takes less time."

20. Tilt down from the Venice Carnival painting to the worker preparing the papier-mâché
21. Various of worker preparing the papier-mâché
22. Mid of mask moulds
23. Tilt up from various masks to a worker
24. Close of a souvenir gondola reading "Venezia"
25. Mid of Rrukaj in the showroom
26. Close of mask
27. Low angle of Rrukaj in showroom
28. SOUNDBITE (Albanian) Erton Rrukaj, manager of Venice Art Mask factory:
"One of our strengths is the fanatical preservation of the method of preparing papier-mâché masks, the original Venetian one, made of dough and paper and handmade inside the mould, each of the different models. This makes us a leader and we still preserve the old origin, the old papier-mâché method."

29. Various of masks and showroom

STORYLINE:
LEADIN:

Venice is famous for the ornate masks worn during its carnival.

But many are actually made across the sea, by artisans in Albania.

STORYLINE:

What lies behind the mask?

At this showroom, elaborate creations in bright colours, gold leaf and glitter tempt shoppers.

Any one of them would look at home in the winding streets of Venice at carnival time.

But this is not the floating Italian city. This is Albania.

The masks are produced at a factory which was opened back in 1997.

Today, it makes and exports thousands of masks a year.




Behind the scenes, a group of skilled workers craft the masks.







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