‘HERE, IT’S A CUSTOM TO ATTACK FIRST AND APOLOGIZE LATER’: Kovačević speaks with Kurir about society, Oscars, new book
The Belgrade Book Fair will be held between 21 and 29 October and will last one day longer, with the President of the Board of this greatest cultural event celebrating the written word once again being the dramatist Dušan Kovačević.
The famed Serbian playwright, academician, scriptwriter, and director will then present two of his new editions to the general public. In his interview with Kurir, he talks about about the new season at the Zvezdara Theatre and the theatre phenomenon of the monodrama Knjiga o Milutinu (The Book About Milutin).
What do you expect from the 66th Book Fair?
“We’ve seen that a form of the coronavirus is back, but let us hope to God that this thing doesn’t get complicated. I hope that the Fair will be as it used to be. France is a guest of honour, as one of the greatest literatures in the world. I think that they will bring interesting authors to Belgrade.”
Which French authors have had the greatest impact on you as a writer?
“There are many. Nonetheless, one of the crucial ones was my encounter with Rabelais and his Gargantua and Pantagruel. It shifted my feeling for the aesthetics of literature. I could have been 12 years of age. I’ve read it a few more times later on.”
The slogan of this year’s event is “Long Live Books”. In a digital era, the unavoidable question is if books can survive, and how?
“They can. The claims that books will disappear are false. The very fact that over 200,000 visitors are expected at the Fair speaks to the contrary. People like to come and buy books. A good read in your hands is a unique feeling.”
Will we see your new book at the Fair?
“It’s called Deset Filmskih Priča (Ten Film Stories) and is concerned with my private encounters with some of the Serbian culture greats. They will be organizing a literary evening for me on 28 October, and a book on the 50 years of Maratonci Trče Počasni Krug (The Marathon Family) and Radovan III is in the pipeline. It’s been half a century since these plays of mine were produced at Atelje 212.”
Radovan lives a new life in Sombor. How happy are you with it?
“It’s an interesting production. Not a bit like the Radovan starring Zoran Radmilović. The Sombor production is collective and has been done well because Vito Taufer is an exceptional director. This direction of his has reminded me of some directions by Jagoš Marković. It has a great energy. I’m travelling to Sombor on Saturday to see it there too, because it was performed last summer in Budva.”
What do you expect from the film Heroji Halijarda (Heroes of Halyard) as a co-scriptwriter, given the fact that it has been attacked even before the premiere?
“It’s customary in this country. You attack everything before you see it, and then you apologize. It’s a good, big, and rich film. In a different cinema tradition, it would have been made 50 years ago. It’s an inconceivable feat to save 50 aviators in the middle of a war. Farmers and ordinary people were the heroes. They all needed to be hidden and fed. Americans have made a film about each and every of their cowboys. There is no man there who has robbed a bank and hasn’t gotten a film.”
The film still did not make it to the Oscars nomination?
“I’m not surprised. Surprises are there only when there’s something right, whereas this is perfectly ordinary.”
Kurir.rs/ Ljubomir Radanov
