Troubled past, uncertain future collide
CBC series examines outlook of Balkan writers, artists scarred from violence
Its ethnic diversity lies at the heart of the Balkan region’s trouble history.
In the 20 years since the end of the wars that followed the breakup of the former Yugoslavia there has been some rebuilding, but much of the region and its people remain scarred from the violence.
Through the words of prominent Balkan writers, filmmakers and artists CBC Radio One’s Writers & Company examines the past and looks to the future as the struggle for political and economic stability continues.
“The war in Bosnia ended in 1995 with the Dayton Accord, but the NATO bombings in Belgrade in 1999 occurred because of Serbia’s involvement in Kosovo, so it’s not really a clean anniversary that we can celebrate,” said Eleanor Wachtel, host of Writers & Company.
Wachtel travelled to the region in March to do her interviews with subjects representing five different regions for the Sunday afternoon radio program’s special five-part series, Re-imagining the Balkans: How the countries of the former Yugoslavia Face Their Past and Their Future.
“Even the declarations of independence of each of the republics were at different times,” said Wachtel. “But it is a fascinating part of the world and so much has taken place there, particularly in the 20th century since the assassination in Sarajevo of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife that triggered the First World War.
“To my surprise I found Gavrilo Princip, (the young Bosnian-Serb radical who fired the fatal shots) is like a local hero. There are big pictures of him and books in shop windows and in Sarajevo there are tours and exhibits marking the occasion,” she added.
The end of hostilities is usually marked by celebration and rebuilding, but progress in the Balkans has been slow and many people’s outlook for the future doesn’t appear to be a rosy one. “It seemed that for almost a decade nothing was being rebuilt, but recently more is being done, often through international help,” said Wachtel, who had wondered why so many bombed-out structures remained untouched in places like downtown Belgrade, long after the NATO bombings.
At first she though some ruins were left as a memorial to the period of turmoil, but a taxi driver told her it was simply because there were no resources for major restorations.
The CBC radio series began on April 12 and it runs until May 10.
In the first episode, award-winning Bosnian journalist and fiction writer Muharem Bazdulj, now living in Belgrade, explained what it was like for a male Muslim teen growing up in an ethnically mixed community during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Branded as a traitor in Croatia for her outspoken criticism of war and nationalism, novelist, essayist and professor, Dubravka Urgresic, left Zagreb in 1993 but now frequently visits the city, which is where Wachtel interviewed her for the series’ second instalment. It also features Serbian artistic director Borka Pavicevic, founder of the Centre for Cultural Decontamination in Belgrade, who also provides her experiences and insights in the segment.
Committed to maintaining the artistic exchange that once thrived in the region, award-winning poet and cultural critic from the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana, Ales Debeljak witnessed the 10-day “operetta” war in the aftermath of his country’s independence in 1991. His interview will be broadcast Sunday.
On May 3, poet, playwright and novelist, Sibila Petlevski discusses her experiences and unusual upbringing as the daughter of two important visual artists, a Croatian mother and Macedonian father. In the same part Wachtel speaks with David Albahari, a Serbian from Belgrade and an award-winning fiction writer whose work reflects the experiences of the Yugoslav’s Jewish community during WWII.
The final interview runs May 10 with Aida Begic, a Bosnian filmmaker whose work focuses on life in postwar Bosnia-Herzegovina, especially in her hometown of Sarajevo. As a young girl she had to figure out the best route to take to school every day to avoid sniper fire. Her feature films Snow and Children of Sarajevo have premiered and won prizes at the Cannes Film Festival.
“I asked the people (subjects of the interview) if they were nostalgic for the old Yugoslav and she (Begic) said there are people who are nostalgic for the siege of Sarajevo,” Wachtel said in disbelief.
The filmmaker explained that de- spite the dangers and starvation, just as in the bombing of London by the Nazis during the Second World War, it brought people closer and made them kinder to each other.
“It wasn’t the raw capitalism, eco- nomic disparity and harshness of life that there is now,” Watchel said. “She feels less optimistic now than she did even five years ago.”
“Pessimism is something that they pretty much all have in common.”