Culture

26.06.2007.

CULTURAL CHRONICLE

The film ‘Promise Me This’ by Emir Kusturica opened the festival in Moscow. The third festival of Serbian film ends in Paris. The Belgrade Drama Theater to attend festivals in Albania and Macedonia. More in the CULTURAL CHRONICLE prepared by Milena Gluvacevic.

Famous film director Emir Kusturica opened the 29th Moscow International Theater Festival with his film ‘Promise Me This’. On that occasion he presented an award for contribution to filmmaking to the protagonists of the film ‘Cranes Fly Early’, Russian film legend Tatjana Samojlova and popular actor Aleksej Batalov. Kusturica said that every time he comes to Russia, he realizes that he is in the country of his teachers Dostoyevsky, Chekov and many others adding that he is happy to be invited to open this event.

The third Festival of Serbian Film has ended in Paris, during which fourteen newer films had been shown. The French audience was able to see films such as ‘Seven and a Half’ by Miroslav Momcilovic, ‘The Trap’ by Srdan Golubovic, ‘Guca’ by Dusan Milic. A mini retrospective was also done of films of Serbian director Srdjan Karanovic, who had opened this festival three years ago with his film ‘Loving Glances’. The audience was able to see four of his films – ‘Fragrance of Wild Flowers’, ‘Petria’s Wreath’, ‘Something In Between’. The purpose of this event was to promote Serbian film and culture, and the Belgrade City Assembly and the Ministry of Culture helped realize this project.

The Belgrade Drama Theater will take attend with the play ‘Little Trilogy of Death’, during July and September festivals in Albania and Macedonia. The play of Austrian Nobel winner Elfrida Jelinek was directed by Nebojsa Bradic, and it premiered in August 2005 at the Belgrade Summer Festival – BELEF. It was also successfully preformed in Istanbul last year, as well as numerous festivals in Serbia. Nebojsa Bradic underlined that work on this play had been a discovery of the complex world of the playwright, who mocks the world, adding that one of the characters of the play, the Fairy Queen, is in fact a product of that mockery…

25.06.2007.

MUSIC TELEX

World Day of Music marked in Belgrade. Pianist Darije Sebic, a scholar of the Roosevelt University in Chicago, performed in Belgrade recently. Belgrade ballerina Dunja Jocic, currently living in the Netherlands, on a tour of Europe. More in the MUSIC TELEX, prepared by Milena Gluvacevic.

June 21, World Day of Music, was traditionally observed with a big concert in the open air. Belgraders were presented a music spectacle, which started with a streed show of French masters of spectacular street entertainemnt – a music and theatre troupe Grumsovi. Spectators also listened to the So Sabi band, with their wide repertory of songs from the African continent. This festival was also enriched with the opening of the Kalemegdan Twilights festival, whose 39th edition started with a performance of the Dusan Skovran String Quarter. The celebrations of Day of Music began in 1982, at the initiative of the French Ministry of Culture, when it was published that five million French people play an instrument of some kind. It was decided then to bring music closer to the world and make it public, in order that people playing instruments could listen to one another. On the occasion of the European Year of Music, 1985, the celebrations expanded to other countries and are now held on five continents, in more than 110 countries.

Belgrade pianist Darije Sebic, a scholar of the Roosevelt Academy in Chicago, gave a concert in the Guarnerius Centre in Belgrade. The first part of the concert was dedicated to minimalist music and in the second part the audience listened to works by Serbian composer Milos Raickovic, who lives in New York and also composes music in a minimalist style. Dario Sebic describes himself as a concert pianist who gladly plays everything, from Bach to Strawinsky. This 26-year-old young man is now energetically preparing for some major piano contests, including one in Seoul, South Korea.

Ballet dancer Dunja Jocic and her choerography NO FLOWERS, PLEASE, won the main festival prize at a recently wounded up 11th Festival of Choreographic Miniatures in Belgrade. This Belgrade artist, who was educated at the Academy in Rotterdam, lives in the Netherlands and is currently on a European tour with her ballet troupe. She said she herself could not believe her choreographic debut will achieve such success and adds the victory will enable her to stage a full-length ballet at the Belgrade Summer Festival – BELEF.

21.06.2007.

CULTURAL PANORAMA

The history of Serbian urban families’ private life, from XIX century to modern days, can be partially seen through post cards, greeting cards, photos, wedding invitations, letters and diaries… Those are the items of the exhibition entitled "We are doing well, wishing the same to you", which has been opened in the Ethnography Museum in Belgrade. Slobodan Zivanovic has more in this report.

The exhibition is a result of cooperation between the National Museum in Krusevac and Ethnography Museum in Belgrade, and its authors are advisor of the museum in Krusevac Zivka Romelic and curator of the Belgrade museum Vesna Duskovic. Romelic, who has been given a prestigious award for this exhibition, told our radio that it was entitled by the common expression from the beginning of old letters, sent to one’s family. The displayed material, collected from 11 museums in Serbia, mostly relates to the correspondence of regular every day people, but there is also a section dedicated to better-known persons. For example, Romelic pointed to the letter of the husband of Mina Vukomanovic, daughter of Vuk Karadzic, in which he asks about her health, also the greeting cards sent to great innovator Nikola Tesla from his sister, on the occasion of their patron saint day, as well as the diary of the wife of writer, Nobel Prize winner Ivo Andric.

The oldest letter at the exhibition "We are doing well, wishing the same to you" dates back from 1865, and the final item on display is a mobile phone, as a modern day invention, aimed at communication. "From first letters to e-mails, from signed photographs to CDs, the need has remained to preserve and keep family ties, only the shape has changed", says one of the authors of this exhibition, Zivka Romelic. "I believe that it can be seen in this exhibition that communication through correspondence was kept until 1960s, as part of one family’s life, more so than nowadays", she stated. That is also the reason why the first part of the exhibition is more impressive, i.e. letters and post cards from yesteryears, when special attention was paid how to address a child, girlfriend, or a spouse, underlines our collocutor. "We do not have any more space for preserving such relationships. Today, everything is simplified, just like that", concluded advisor of the Krusevac museum Zivka Romelic.

20.06.2007.

ENROLLMENT AT UNIVERSITIES IN SERBIA

38,995 freshmen will be able to enrol at the seven state universities in Serbia for the academic year 2007-2008. 19,171 students will be financed from the budget and 19,824 will be self-financed. Senka Kuder has more.

The first enrollment period lasts from June 20 to July 25. Candidates apply from 20 June to 22 June and entrance examinations will be organized on June 27, 28 and 29. The candidates who are not admitted in the first round, will get another chance from September 1 to September 20, when they will be able to apply only at those universities where there are still vacancies. The enrollment rules remain the same as in the previous years, which means that candidates are ranked on the basis of the success achieved in secondary school and at the entrance examination. Those who opt for a faculty of the University of Arts will have to take a test of talents and skills. The maximal number of points a candidate can win is 100. In order to be financed from the state budget, the future freshman must have at least 51 points, while the lower limit for self-financing students is 30 points. If a candidate is not satisfied with their position in the list, they can lodge a complaint with the dean of the faculty for which they applied. If they have objections even after receiving a reply from the dean, the candidate can complain to the Council of the Faculty. The tuition fee for self-financing students ranges from RSD 30,000, or EUR 400, at the Faculty of Mining and Geology, to RSD 240,000, or EUR 3,000, at the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade. Foreign students shall pay between EUR 800 and EUR 3,000, depending on the faculty.

The Serbian government has established examination quotas for students who are to be financed from the budget at junior colleges in Serbia. Of the 48 accredited junior colleges, 23 can register 2,745 freshmen each, while for others the quotas are to be subsequently established. Colleges themselves will establish tuition fees and the number of self-financed students.