Sreten Asanović, Nomina, Plima, Ulcinj, 2011
By: Ivana Ančić
English version will be available soon.
Ljiljana Pirolić: Casino Sarajevo (Dobra knjiga, Sarajevo, 2010)
By Leda Sutlović
Casino Sarajevo is the first novel by the Bosnian and Herzegovinian journalist Ljiljana Pirolić. The novel awarded by the Bosnian and Hezegovinian Publishing Foundation, revealing the dark side of the city full of crime and violence. The characters are young people, almost of age, who, instead of finishing high-school, choose a life in Sarajevo’s underground. Instead of books and classrooms, their everyday life becomes prostitution, trafficking, drugs and violence.
Random Little Criminals
The novel tells of a year in a life of Srđan Maćić, a high-school graduate, who ends up all alone after his mother’s death, far away on the outskirts of the Serbian part of Sarajevo. Exceptionally mature for his age, Srđan is also extremely handsome, which becomes the main trigger for all events in his life and when combined with his surname, gives him the nickname Mačak (The Cat). His first-door neighbour, best friend and the love of his life is Lolica, daughter of a bully and a brute Jovo, and Dragan’s sister, a young man who leaves his studies in Belgrade and starts a career in the criminal world. Due to problems in life and lack of a bright future, which is felt in the entire country and in the city, Mačak and Lolica decide to leave school. Lolica runs away from her bully father to her brother the criminal, and Mačak once again ends up alone, lost and exposed to all sorts of schemes of the criminal world that rule the city. He directs most of his energy on socialising, girls, expecting and planning his first sexual experience, and after a set of unusual circumstances, finds himself in front of a brothel, where he falls in love with a Ukrainian dancer Julija, herself a victim of trafficking. Blinded by his lust for Julija and poverty, Mačak starts to work for one of the most powerful criminals in Sarajevo, the owner of Casino Sarajevo. This ‘’job’’ soon gets him into life threatening situations from which he barely manages to get out of.
The basic topic of this novel is the insight into the unconventional life of a young man and that of his peers, mixed with scenes from Sarajevo’s underground. Although the novel consists of various criminal activities, it seems that the problems of trafficking and prostitution are the author’s main point of interest. An active involvement is clear from descriptions of connections between the mafia bosses in the Balkan countries, discovering the traffic routes and fates of these girls. By building the story around a young generation, with no motivation to work or study, who rely too much on their good luck, the author also speaks of the life choices inside a certain social frame. It seems a bit unreal and over the top to show all the young people in the novel as opportunistic slackers living only for body pleasures. It is surprising that none of the characters comes from a stable family and that they are all up to no good. On the other hand, it is interesting to see that, in a nationally divided city, the youngsters make no such differences among themselves, regardless of the poisonous remarks from the adults.
To show the world the young people live in, the novel often includes different music which is supposed to emphasise the feeling and give a certain legitimacy to the text. But it is hard to believe that two drunk young men listen to Nelly Furtado in the kitchen or that a mafia boss hums Kylie Minogue (note: these situations have no intention to be comical). These tiny flaws combined with cliché quotations that the young characters use too often, lowers the credibility of the story.
Details of the Details
The easy-going and interesting novel has moments with too detailed explanations of certain situations, retelling already ‘’told’’ stories, such as, detailed descriptions of minor events or events of almost no importance for the text. Such unclear and slightly confusing structure, destroys the joy of reading. In a novel consisting of eleven chapters, 150 pages belong to the first chapter. The ‘’real plot’’ and the light-motive of Casino Sarajevo appears somewhere in the middle of the novel, which only makes the structure more confusing. Although describing ‘’the lowest low’’ and the youngsters that got lost in it, the author holds nothing against these young people, but describes their inner torments and tells us that everyone has a right to make mistakes. Hence, most of the characters do not succeed in their illegitimate business, they realise that honest work pays off and that ‘’crime’’ does not. Such an optimistic ending is emphasised by an article in ’’Oslobođenje“ that reveals the organised prostitution in Casino Sarajevo and manages, at least temporarily, to close down the ‘’club’’. Combined with the above mentioned activist moment, it makes a fine point for the end. Unlike the mentioned structure of the text followed by the sporadic trips into the unknown, at least the point is clear and convincing.
Sreten Asanović, Nomina, Plima, Ulcinj, 2011
By: Ivana Ančić
English version will be available soon.
OSMI I SEDMI PUTNIK, Aleksandar Bjelogrlić, Citadela, Agora, Zrenjanin, 201
By: Dalibor Plečić
English version will be available soon.
Stjepan Gulin, Paz’te sad, paz’te sad (Meandarmedia, Zagreb, 2011.)
Authors: Ivana Ančić
Igor Marojević, Kroz glavu (Dosije, Beograd, 2012.)
Author: Dalibor Plečić
Damir Miloš, Pisa. Povratak (Meandarmedia, Zagreb, 2011.)
Author: Morena Livaković
POLITIČKE I DRUŠTVENE KONSTRUKCIJE IDENTITETA U VIDEO-PERFORMANSIMA NA BEOGRADSKOJ SCENI 1970-ih
Esej Vladimira Bjeličića
Esej u celini možete pročitati na portalu SEEcult.org
Esej Tihane Bertek
Od promatrača do sudionika
GALERIJA KAPELICA I POST-JUGOSLAVENSKI BODY ART (1995–2010)
Esej – Bojan Krištofić
Esej o radovima Šejle Kamerić, Maje Bajević i Nebojše Šerića Shobe
Piše: Slađana Golijanin
ESEJ – Razvaline socijalizma kao inspiracija za muzejske eksponate Mrđana Bajića i skulpturalne dosetke Ivana Fijolića
By: Milena Milojević
Piše: Nino Kovačić
Gostujuća izvedba šibenskog HNK, Pir malograđana, prema tekstu mladog Bertolda Brechta (napisan 1919.) izvedena je po sljedećoj formuli: na Danima satire u satiričkom kazalištu Kerempuh gledamo satiričan komad. Prema reakcijama publike, bila je uspješna, ali teško se oteti dojmu da je smijeh bio formulaično zagarantiran, jer bi takav instruirani moment humora trebao zauzdati spontani smijeh. Je li se možda radilo o “malograđanskom” humoru?
Glumice i to, KNAP, Zagreb, premijera 12.5.2012.
Piše: Nino Kovačić
Glumice i to, nova predstava u zagrebačkom KNAP-u, neobičan su kazališni ‘slučaj’. Naime, predstavu su, dramaturški i režijski osmislile te, naravno, glumački ostvarile četiri mlade glumice. U trenutačnoj opće-društvenoj, pa tako i kazališnoj situaciji, kojom prijete olovni pojmovi poput recesije, prekarijata i outsourcinga (nedavno su najavljena i otpuštanja “hladnopogonskih” glumaca), one su, kako piše u najavi “nezaposlene i pune entuzijazma, odlučile su preuzeti stvar u svoje ruke i napraviti hit!”. Očito sklone postdramskom pristupu izvedbi koji se, između ostalog, bazira na ekipnoj work-in-progress metodi, izvedbenoj anti-iluziji i autoreferencijalnosti, glumice/autorice su se “trgnule” i napravile parodiju o tome kako rade predstavu, po ironičnom ključu: kad ne ide pravljenje predstave treba napraviti predstavu o tome kako se ne može raditi predstava.
“Nije život biciklo”, Biljana Srbljanović, režija: Anselm Veber, Produkcija: Šaušpilhaus Bohum, Nemačka; Sterijino pozorje 2012, selekcija Nacionalne drame i pozorišta
By: Tamara Baračkov
English version will be available soon.
„Grebanje, ili kako se ubila moja baka“, Tanja Šljivar, režija: Selma Spahić, Bosansko narodno pozorište Zenica/Bitef teatar-Hartefakt (Beograd), premijera: 7. septembar 2012. (Zenica), 11. oktobar 2012. (Beograd)
By: Tamara Baračkov
English version will be available soon.
„Sluga dvaju gospodara“, Karlo Goldoni, režija: Boris Liješević, Grad teatar Budva/Srpsko narodno pozorište Novi Sad/Narodno pozorište „Toša Jovanović“ Zrenjanin, premijera: 27. jul 2012.
By: Tamara Baračkov
English version will be available soon.