Novembar

| 49 Like thunder from a clear sky or a ray of sunshine in the middle of the night. Where was the breaking point - for the award to go to a “political mis t” Kao grom iz vedra neba ili zrak sunca usred noći. Gde se to prelomilo – da nagrada ode „politički nepodobnom“, inače genijalnom autoru, i to baš u Švedskoj? thewhole ensemble, thatwe knoweachother personally, soon the evening of the premiere we called Peter together, who was thrilled about the show andwished the teamall the best. And Handke and I met in the middle of the day, in May 1996, whenhispoemToDuration (Gedicht andiedauer)waspromotedat theNationalLibraryofSerbia.Althoughthecontentsof thebookwere completely irrelevant tous, interwovenwithhis life in theworldand his poetic considerations of the same, theevent gained thegreatest national signi cance. He was a world-class writer who dared to express his admiration for the people, and alongside that he came to Belgrade. Formepersonally, hewas thegenius author of thescreenplay forWimWenders’ lmWings of Desire, which I watched several times consecutively. The 58-page bilingual book of poetrywas submittedtomewiththe responsibility that I selectpartsof it topersonallyrecountat thepromotion.As Iwas readingasegment, theauthor suddenlymoved backwith his whole chair, turned towardsme and lookedatme, listeningtowhat Iwasdoing. I continuedreadingwithoutpayingattentiontohisconcentratedpresence. After thepromotion, againbecauseof themassandprotocol, I didn’thaveanopportunity to approachhim, inorder for us to formallymeet, then at one point Handke approached me and said “I don’t like it when actors readmy words, but you read this as though you aren’t an actress”. I answered,without hesitation, by sayingwhat I really thought:“Then youwrote thisas if you’renot awriter”.Wepartedways, becauseprotocol still had to be followed, which also implied hanging out later with Olja in the studio. As I wasn’t part of the protocol, I paid no attention to the arrangements until I heard Peter yell “I’m only coming if Jelena is there”. I understood that I had no choice. And how it was then is the case again today. But let’s return to the Swedes and the Swedish Academy that awards the Nobel Prize. Lobbying also exists here, as it does for all the other prestigious world awards, and here I’mprimarily referring totheOscars. I admit that Iwasn’tamediator, and Iwouldhave loved to have been. Actually, the only person from the Academy that I’ve met is KatarinaFrostenson, because I planned toperformoneof her monodramas. We met and spoke once. We didn’t manage to concludetheconversationprior toherbeingdismissedlastyear, andnot so gloriously. And generally the entire Academy had become contentious until it ceased operations last year (and that proves Sweden’s strength to admit defeat, re-examine its ranks, wait and set out with new forces). Life in Sweden taught me that we should be happy that we have at least oneYugoslav, SerbianNobel laureate in Ivo Andrić, from 1961, and that is thanks to Ingmar Bergman’s wife, Gunvor ‘Gun’Bergman (who was married to the director from 1952 to ‘59), a professor of philosophy and Slavic languages. Some don’t have even that! TheNobel Prize isn’t a local event, but rather a global one. Just as Handke has long since stopped being a local European writer and now belongs to the world. So the ght for freedom and personal opinion comes home to the Swedes. And thus“divine thoughts”or thewriter’s“gods gift”fell fromthe trackof beatenpopular culture and politics. Withthisdecision, Swedenregaineditscharacter, andtheAcademy regainedbasic respect for essential values - the freedomof creationthat includes the individualityof theauthor inthequest for the truth that we all need somuch.What it showedmost importantly is that it had the courage and strength to equal the greatness of the writer they awarded. As far as I’m concerned – it was born again. And something else, for me personally – as an actress and producer – anOscar is the prize I dreamof, but if we say that the screenplay is the basis of every lm in written form, then the Nobel Prize is a good comparison. Peter Handke received the award, which is proof of the existence of good literature as the basis for good lms. I personally experienced it asmy ownOscar and the countrywhere I live as my own country.

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