Angoroj
| Angoroj | |
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Title Screen
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| Directed by | Jacques-Louis Mahé |
| Produced by | Jacques-Louis Mahé |
| Written by | Atelier Mahé |
| Starring |
Michel Duc-Goninaz Raymond Schwartz Gaston Waringhien |
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Release date
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| Country | France |
| Language | Esperanto |
Angoroj (1964; Esperanto for "Agonies") was the first feature film to be produced entirely in Esperanto. It was directed and produced by Jacques-Louis Mahé, a friend of Raymond Schwartz who, under the pseudonym 'Lorjak', had previously produced a silent Esperanto publicity film before World War II titled Antaŭen! (Onwards!).
At the start of the 1960s Mahé, a professional photographic and cinematic expert, invested in the production of the first fictional film in Esperanto. Using a scenario by Mahé himself, the actors of the Internacia Arta Teatro (International Arts Theatre) presented a crime story, set in the Parisian periphery of petty thieves and cheats. Other notable people who played parts in the film included Schwartz (the commissioner), Gaston Waringhien (the voice-over) and many from the environs of the contemporary Paris, including Michel Duc-Goninaz.
The film was produced from 1963 to 1964, but the market did not react favourably. Mahé, who lost a large sum of money, accused Universala Esperanto-Asocio of a boycott. At the highest point of his depression, he destroyed almost all copies: only two remain (acquired eventually by the Château de Grésillon and the British Esperanto Association, both already used) as well as the original, which LF-koop (Kooperativo de Literatura Foiro) rescued in 1991, distributing a 61-minute videotape.
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