Intrigued in Albania

Between September 2020 and December 2024, Janneke Geurts (1969, the Netherlands) lived in Tirana, Albania, while her husband worked on an international assignment and their youngest daughter finished high school.

Fascinated by the history of the country and the personal stories of her new friends, she started to research the effects of collective, transgenerational trauma and the possibilities for healing in post-communist Albania. Being a psychologist, she noticed a lack in the knowledge and understanding of trauma within the country and set herself a goal to write a book to explain these psychological concepts in an understandable and approachable way.

Intrigued in Albania consists of psychology lessons, personal observations and suggestions for much needed healing work that is needed on a national level. The life stories of her Albanian best friends make her observations and theory come to life, and pay tribute to the hardship and resilience many Albanians had to face and still have to endure.

Janneke Geurts joined forces with Mario Beqollari (1996), who brought the stories to life in images. He graduated at POLIS University in 2023 in Art and Design and works as a successful photographer and filmmaker. His technical skill, in combination with his ability to easily connect with people, is visible in the portraits he made of Janneke’s friends.