+381 11 4030 306 belgradeinsighteditor@birn.eu.com

BELGRADE INSIGHT IS PUBLISHED BY

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iday

• Ju

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Lure

of T

adic

Alli

ance

Spl

its S

ocia

lists

Whi

le y

oung

er S

ocia

lists

supp

ort j

oini

ng a

new

, pro

-EU

gov

ernm

ent,

old

Milo

sevi

c lo

yalis

ts th

reat

en re

volt

over

the

pros

pect

.

ED

ITO

R’S

WO

RD

Polit

ical

Pre

dict

abili

tyB

y M

ark

R. P

ulle

n

Man

y of

us

who

hav

e ex

peri-

ence

d nu

mer

ous

Ser

bian

ele

ctio

ns

rate

our

selv

es a

s pu

ndits

whe

n it

com

es t

o pr

edic

ting

elec

tion

re-

sults

and

pos

t-el

ectio

n m

oves

. W

e fe

el i

n-th

e-kn

ow b

ecau

se

our

expe

rienc

e of

ele

ctio

ns in

Ser

-bi

a ha

s sh

own

us th

at (a

.) no

sin

gle

part

y or

coa

litio

n w

ill ev

er g

ain

the

maj

ority

requ

ired

to fo

rm a

gov

ern-

men

t, an

d (b

.) po

litic

al n

egot

iatio

ns

will

neve

r be

quic

kly

conc

lude

d.Ev

en

whe

n th

e D

emoc

rats

ac

hiev

ed t

heir

surp

risin

g re

sult

at

last

m

onth

’s

gene

ral

elec

tion,

it

quic

kly

beca

me

clea

r th

at t

he r

e-su

lt w

as a

ctua

lly m

ore-

or-le

ss t

he

sam

e as

eve

ry o

ther

ele

ctio

n re

sult

in S

erbi

a, i.

e. in

conc

lusi

ve.

This

is li

kely

to c

ontin

ue a

s lo

ng

as

Ser

bia’

s po

litic

ians

fo

rm

new

po

litic

al

part

ies

ever

y tim

e th

ey

disa

gree

with

the

ir cu

rren

t pa

rty

lead

er (t

here

are

cur

rent

ly 3

42 re

g-is

tere

d po

litic

al p

artie

s in

Ser

bia)

. D

raw

n-ou

t neg

otia

tions

are

als

o th

e no

rm.

One

B

elgr

ade-

base

d A

mba

ssad

or r

ecen

tly t

old

me

he

was

als

o al

arm

ed b

y th

e di

stin

ct

lack

of

ur

genc

y am

ong

Ser

bian

po

litic

ians

. “T

he

coun

try

is

at

a st

ands

till

and

I do

n’t

unde

rsta

nd

thei

r lo

gic.

If

they

are

so

eage

r to

pr

ogre

ss t

owar

ds t

he E

U a

nd e

n-co

urag

e in

vest

ors,

how

com

e th

ey

go h

ome

at 5

pm s

harp

and

don

’t w

ork

wee

kend

s?”

Sur

ely

the

situ

atio

n is

ur

gent

en

ough

to w

arra

nt a

littl

e ov

ertim

e.

Cost

s M

ount

ing

Econo

mis

ts a

re w

arni

ng th

at p

ro-

long

ed un

certa

inty

over

Ser

bia’

s fu

ture

cou

ld sc

are

off i

nves

tors

, lea

d to

hig

her

infla

tion

and

jeop

ardi

se

pros

perit

y fo

r yea

rs to

com

e.“T

his y

ear h

as b

een

lost

, fro

m th

e st

andp

oint

of e

cono

mic

pol

icy,

” say

s St

ojan

Sta

men

kovi

c of

the

Econ

om-

ics I

nstit

ute

in B

elgr

ade.

Foot

ball

Rebe

llion

Whi

le th

e foo

tbal

l wor

ld w

atch

-es

eve

nts

unfo

ld a

t the

Eur

o-pe

an C

ham

pion

ship

s in

Aus

tria

and

Switz

erla

nd, B

osni

a is

exp

erie

ncin

g a

socc

er re

belli

on, l

ed b

y fa

ns, p

lay-

ers a

nd fo

rmer

star

s who

are e

nrag

ed

by w

hat t

hey

see

as c

orru

pt le

ader

s of

the

coun

try’s

foot

ball

asso

ciat

ion

lead

ers.

By

Rad

e M

aroe

vic

in B

elgr

ade

Tense

neg

otia

tions

on

a new

gov

-er

nmen

t hav

e di

vide

d th

e ra

nks

of t

he S

ocia

list

Party

, w

hich

hol

ds

the

bala

nce

of p

ower

bet

wee

n th

e m

ain

bloc

s an

d ha

s ye

t to

anno

unce

w

hich

side

they

will

supp

ort.

“It

look

s as

if

the

Soci

alist

s w

ill

mov

e to

war

ds a

gov

ernm

ent l

ed b

y th

e D

emoc

rats,

” po

litic

al a

naly

st M

i-la

n N

ikol

ic, o

f the

inde

pend

ent C

en-

tre o

f Pol

icy

Stud

ies,

said

. “Bu

t suc

h a

mov

e m

ight

pro

voke

dee

per

divi

-sio

ns a

nd e

ven

split

the

party

.”Si

mul

tane

ous

nego

tiatio

ns

held

w

ith th

e pr

o-Eu

rope

an a

nd n

atio

nal-

ist b

locs

hav

e dr

awn

atte

ntio

n to

a

deep

rift

insid

e th

e So

cial

ists.

This

divi

des

“old

-tim

ers”

lo

yal

to S

erbi

a’s

late

pre

siden

t, Sl

obod

an

Milo

sevi

c, a

nd r

efor

mist

s w

ho w

ant

the

party

to b

ecom

e a

mod

ern

Euro

-pe

an so

cial

dem

ocra

t org

anisa

tion.

Afte

r ei

ght

year

s of

sta

gnat

ion,

th

e So

cial

ists r

etur

ned

to c

entre

stag

e af

ter

win

ning

20

of th

e 25

0 se

ats

in

parli

amen

t in

the

May

11

elec

tions

.W

ith th

e pro

-Eur

opea

n an

d na

tion-

alist

blo

cs a

lmos

t ev

enly

mat

ched

, th

e So

cial

ists

now

hav

e th

e fin

al s

ay

on th

e fa

te o

f the

cou

ntry

.N

ikol

ic b

elie

ves t

he S

ocia

lists,

led

by I

vica

Dac

ic,

will

com

e ov

er t

o Ta

dic,

if o

nly

out o

f a p

ragm

atic

de-

sire

to e

nsur

e th

eir p

oliti

cal s

urvi

val.

“The

gro

up o

f yo

unge

r So

cial

ists

gath

ered

aro

und

Dac

ic s

eem

s to

be

in th

e m

ajor

ity”,

Nik

olic

said

, add

ing

that

thes

e ref

orm

ists b

elie

ve th

e par

ty

face

s ext

inct

ion

unle

ss it

cha

nges

. H

owev

er,

a str

ong

curre

nt a

lso

flow

s in

the

opp

osite

dire

ctio

n, l

ed

by p

arty

vet

eran

s en

rage

d by

the

pr

ospe

ct o

f a d

eal w

ith T

adic

.M

ihaj

lo M

arko

vic,

a f

ound

er o

f th

e pa

rty, r

ecen

tly w

arne

d of

a c

risis

if D

acic

opt

s fo

r th

e pr

o-Eu

rope

an

bloc

, aba

ndon

ing

the S

ocia

lists’

“nat

-ur

al”

ideo

logi

cal p

artn

ers.

Mar

kovi

c, a

pro

min

ent

supp

orte

r of

Milo

sevi

c du

ring

the

1990

s, is

seen

as

repr

esen

tativ

e of

the

“ol

d-tim

ers”

in th

e pa

rty w

ho w

ant t

o sta

y tru

e to

the

form

er r

egim

e’s

polic

ies,

even

thou

gh th

ese

alm

ost r

uine

d th

e So

cial

ists f

or g

ood.

So

me

youn

ger

Soci

alist

offi

cial

s ha

ve v

oice

d fru

strat

ion

over

the

con-

tinui

ng i

mpa

sse

with

in t

heir

own

party

ove

r whi

ch w

ay to

turn

. “T

he s

ituat

ion

in th

e pa

rty s

eem

s ex

trem

ely

com

plic

ated

, as

we

try

to c

onvi

nce

the

few

rem

aini

ng l

ag-

gard

s th

at w

e ne

ed t

o m

ove

out

of

Milo

sevi

c’s

shad

ow,”

one

Soc

ialis

t Pa

rty o

ffici

al c

ompl

aine

d.“D

acic

will

eve

ntua

lly s

ide

with

Ta

dic

in a

bid

to g

uide

his

party

into

th

e Eu

rope

an m

ains

tream

, but

muc

h of

the

mem

bers

hip

and

man

y of

fi-ci

als m

ay o

ppos

e th

at m

ove.

” N

ikol

ic a

gree

d: “

The

ques

tion

is w

ill th

e pa

rty s

plit

or w

ill th

e ‘o

ld-

timer

s’ ba

ck d

own,

” he

not

ed.

Fear

ing

they

mig

ht n

ot c

ross

the

5-

per-c

ent

thre

shol

d to

ent

er p

arlia

-m

ent,

the

Soci

alist

s te

amed

up

with

th

e Ass

ocia

tion

of P

ensio

ners

and

the

Uni

ted

Serb

ia P

arty

, led

by

busin

ess-

man

Dra

gan

Mar

kovi

c “P

alm

a”.

Pens

ione

rs le

ader

, Jov

an K

rkob

a-bi

c, P

alm

a an

d D

acic

are

all

push

ing

for a

dea

l with

the

Dem

ocra

ts.

The

repo

rted

pric

e is

the

post

of

depu

ty P

M, w

ith a

brie

f in

char

ge o

f se

curit

y fo

r the

Soc

ialis

t lea

der.

In a

dditi

on, t

he S

ocia

lists

are

bar-

gain

ing

for

othe

r m

inist

ries,

incl

ud-

ing

capi

tal i

nves

tmen

ts, K

osov

o an

d ed

ucat

ion,

Bel

grad

e m

edia

repo

rted.

Tadi

c ha

s de

nied

tal

k of

hor

se-

tradi

ng w

ith th

e So

cial

ists,

mai

ntai

n-in

g th

at m

inist

ries

wou

ld g

o on

ly to

th

ose

com

mitt

ed to

wor

king

for

the

gove

rnm

ent’s

“str

ateg

ic g

oal”

.A

t the

sam

e tim

e, D

acic

seem

s re-

luct

ant

to c

all

off

nego

tiatio

ns w

ith

the

natio

nalis

ts.“I

f w

e do

n’t

reac

h an

agr

eem

ent

with

the

DSS

and

Rad

ical

s, th

e pa

r-ty

lea

ders

hip

will

dec

ide

on f

utur

e ste

ps”,

Dac

ic a

nnou

nced

, fo

llow

ing

the fi

rst s

essio

n of

coun

try’s

new

par

-lia

men

t on

Wed

nesd

ay.

Sour

ce: B

alka

n In

sight

(www

.bal

kani

nsig

ht.c

om)

Bus

ines

s Ins

ight

Nei

ghbo

urho

od M

atte

rs

Soci

alis

t lea

der I

vica

Dac

ic re

mai

ns th

e Se

rbia

n ki

ngm

aker

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ge 1

0

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IS IS

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E O

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Mapping Belgrade's Great Love Stories

Page 10

Filip RUDIC

With campaigning well under way in the lead up to the Belgrade City As-sembly election on

March 4, political parties are scram-bling to attract celebrity candidates and endorsements from stars and pub-lic figures in a bid to win over voters.

The Serbian Progressive Party has not only secured support from a raft of celebrities, including famous athletes, TV personalities and intellectuals, they

have also included many of them on their electoral list.

Indeed, the Progressives have an-nounced that there are more celeb-rities and public figures than party members among the top 20 ranked candidates on their list.

The top-ranked candidate on the Progressive list is surgeon Zoran Rado-jicic, general director of the University Children's Hospital in Belgrade and a professor at Belgrade University's Fac-ulty of Medicine.

Continued on page 2

Photo: Beta The former coach of Serbia's national basketball team, Dusan Ivkovic, said he wholeheartedly supports Dragan Djilas' candidacy. From left: Vuk Jeremic, Dusan Ivkovic, Sasa Jankovic and Dragan Djilas.

Political parties scramble for star endorsements for next month's

election, as bookmakers give Progressive candidates best odds

for Belgrade mayor.

PARTIES SEEK CELEBRITY

SUPPORT AHEAD OF CITY VOTE

Film Fest Invites Belgraders to ‘Come Closer'

Page 13

Issue No. 245 Friday, February 9, - Thursday, February 22, 2018

2 3BELGRADE INSIGHT, Friday, February 9 - Thursday, February 22, 2018 BELGRADE INSIGHT, Friday, February 9 - Thursday, February 22, 2018

Belgrade City Assembly members are elected to serve four-year terms via a party-list proportional representation system.

Voters select from pre-registered party or coalition lists of candidates, circling their preferred list on the ballot. They cannot select individual candidates.

Parties/coalitions rank candidates in order of preference on lists, so the higher up the list a candidate is, the greater their chance of winning a seat. Each list must have both male and female candidates, with no fewer than a third of either sex.

Party/Coalition lists must win at least five per cent of the vote to take any of the assembly's 110 seats.

The city mayor is chosen by elected assembly members. Many parties/coalitions name their chosen mayoral candi-date before the election but they are not obliged to.

VOTING SYSTEM

Another Progressive star candidate is Aja Jung, a former ballerina and director of the Belgrade Dance Festival.

Neither Radojicic nor Jung are party members. During an interview broad-cast by the N1 television channel in January, Jung said: "Many on the [Pro-gressives'] list are not politicians but are there to contribute with their knowl-edge, experience, skills and energy".

She said she decided to support the Progressives in order to see "change in the field of culture".

Basketball coach and former player Milan Gurovic, who won the gold med-al with the Yugoslav national team at the 2002 World Championship, is also on the list, as well as former European basketball champion Goran Grbovic.

OPPOSITION CELEBS

One opposition figure who has lev-eraged significant celebrity support ahead of the vote is Dragan Djilas, the former city mayor and ex-Democratic Party leader.

Djilas is the mayoral candidate for the coalition list agreed between the Free Citizens' Movement, led by for-mer Ombudsman and runner-up in last year's presidential election Sasa Jankovic and the People's Party, led by former foreign minister and diplomat Vuk Jeremic.

Actor Nikola Djuricko, writer Dragan Velikic and movie director Zdravko Sotra are on this coalition's election list, and Djilas has received endorse-ments from a number of respected academics, including Professor Rade Veljanovski from the Faculty for Politi-cal Sciences in Belgrade and movie di-rector Janko Baljak, who teaches at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts.

The former coach of Serbia's nation-al basketball team, Dusan Ivkovic, said he choose not to run as a candidate but underlined he wholeheartedly sup-ports Djilas' candidacy.

"I gladly answered the call to support the list because Djilas knows the job, he has vast managerial experience and everything was done in accordance with regulations during his [two] terms [as mayor]," Ivkovic said at a press con-ference in January, the regional TV channel N1 reported.

The former water polo star and cur-rent mayor of the Novi Beograd munic-ipality Aleksandar Sapic, is standing as an independent. A celebrity in his own right, he has not yet attracted support from other big names but used his own star status well to win the municipal vote in 2012.

The Democratic Party, which has formed a coalition with a number of smaller parties, has announced its list is brimming with university profes-sors, writer and – uniquely – two retired army generals. The Serbian Army is consistently identified as the most trusted and popular state institution in the country.

Retired Brigadier General Sreto Ma-linovic is among the Democrat's top 10 ranked candidates and is a promi-nent critic of the state of the country's armed forces. He has said that the cur-rent government's failure to improve pay and conditions for serving soldiers has made their lives "agony".

Former defence minister and party leader, Dragan Sutanovac, is the Demo-crat's preferred candidate for mayor. He told Tanjug news agency in Janu-ary: "People on the Democratic Party list are experts in the various fields in which Belgrade is having problems."

BOOKIES' ODDS

Bookmakers have given Progressive Party member Sinisa Mali, the current Mayor of Belgrade, best odds, despite the fact that the Progressive Party has not yet named a candidate.

Mali's term has been tarnished by numerous scandals. He has been ac-cused of plagiarising his PhD thesis, concealing the purchase of luxury apartments on the Bulgarian coast, and involvement with the highly con-troversial overnight demolitions in the Savamala district of the city on April 25, 2016. He denied any wrongdoing.

Progressive party leader and Ser-bian President Aleksandar Vucic said last May that Mali will step down as mayor because of his scandals. How-ever he remains in post.

Meridianbet has given Mali odds of 2 to 1 and Maxbet 2.5 to 1.

Two other Progressive candidates are among the bookmarkers top three can-didates for mayor. Meridianbet has giv-en Goran Vesic, the city manager, 3.6 to 1 and Irena Vujovic, mayor of the Savski venac municipality of Belgrade, 4 to 1.

Maxbet has Vujovic on 3 to 1 and Vesic 3.75 to 1.

Trailing behind the three leading Progressives is independent Sapic, ranked fourth and fifth most likely can-didate by Meridianbet and Maxbet re-spectively. Meridianbet gave Sapic 5 to 1 and Maxbet 5.5 to 1.

Maxbet has the children's hospital director and Progressive list candidate Radojicic on 5 to 1.

The Socialist Party candidate and current energy minister, Aleksandar Antic, is on 5.5 to 1 with Meridianbet.

Meridianbet and Maxbet both set the odds for the Free Citizens' Move-ment and People's Party mayoral can-didate Djilas at 6 to 1.

Democratic candidate Sutanovac fares poorly at the bookies, with odds worse than for some politicians who did not even run for the position of mayor and will not likely do so at all. Meridianbet cites odds of 75 to 1 and Maxbet 60 to 1.

Other opposition candidates face even worse odds at the bookmakers.

Luka Maksimovic, better known as spoof politician Ljubisa Preletacevic Beli, is facing odds of 100 to 1 at Me-ridianbet and 300 to 1 at Maxbet. The same odds apply to the leader of the Enough is Enough political movement, Sasa Radulovic.

Potential candidates from Let's Not Drown Belgrade – a movement that began as a group protesting against the controversial Belgrade Waterfront de-velopment, are facing odds of 500 to 1.

The worst odds at Maxbet – 999 to 1 – go to Marko Bastac, current mayor of the municipality of Stari Grad, while Meridianbet has the ultranationalist Serbian Radicals' Party candidate Mil-jan Damjanovic on 1000 to 1.

Parties Seek Celebrity Support Ahead of City Vote

Photo: Beta

Photo: Flickr/ Jon Worth

Photo: Beta

Former ballerina and current director of the Belgrade Dance Festival, Aja Jung, says she decided to support theProgressives in order to see "change in the field of culture".

”New Born” sign in Pristina, 2008.

Protests against Kosovo's Independence in Nis, southern Serbia.

Continued from page 1

BELGRADE SERBIA

Maja ZIVANOVIC

Several right-wing move-ments in Serbia, such as Serbian Action, Identity Generation and Cultural Club Lighthouse, have an-

nounced a "March for Serbian Kosovo" on February 17, the tenth anniversary of Kosovo's independence.

Serbian nationalists fiercely oppose the independence of the mainly eth-nic Albanian former province, which many of them call the "cradle" of the Serbian nation.

"On the occasion of the tenth anni-versary of the illegal proclamation of the so-called independence of Kosovo and Metohija, patriots from Serbian Ac-tion, Identity Generation and the Cul-tural Club Svetionik [Lighthouse] will organize a 'March for Serbian Kosovo'," they announced on Facebook.

Kosovo proclaimed independence from Serbia in 2008, having de facto broken away in 1999 as a result of NA-TO's air war on Serbia.

Serbian national-ists opposed to the independence of Serbia's former province have said they intend to stage a protest march on Kosovo Indepen-dence Day.

Serbian Rightists To Protest on Kosovo Independence Day

Most Western countries, including the US, recognised Kosovo as a state long ago, but five EU states – Spain, Greece, Slovakia, Romania and Cyprus – do not. Serbia also enjoys strong sup-port from Russia and China over the Kosovo issue.

Formally, Kosovo has been free of in-ternational oversight since the Interna-tional Civilian Office, the body respon-sible for overseeing independence, left in 2012. The EU's rule-of-law mission, EULEX, remains in place, though with reduced powers.

While the independence of Kosovo is strongly opposed by the Serbian gov-ernment, it is denied still more vehe-mently by the nationalist right.

The official announcement of the "March for Kosovo" said the gathering will start at 5pm in front of St Mark's church in Belgrade.

Serbian Action is well known to the public and was involved in Sunday's con-troversial commemoration of Milan Nedic.

Nedic headed Serbia's puppet gov-ernment under German occupation during World War II.

Pictures from the event, shared wide-ly on social networks, showed activists giving Nazi salutes.

Identity Generation and Cultural Club Lighthouse are not so known in public. Their websites and Facebook accounts say they stand for "the protec-tion of Serbian ethno-cultural identity" and strongly oppose Kosovo's inde-pendence.

"We invite all patriots to join us, and together show the attitude of a patri-otic Serbia that does not give up on the holy Serbian land - Kosovo and

Metohija," the event's Facebook page says.

In Kosovo, on the other hand, variety of events are planned for the anniver-sary. The official agenda is still to be an-nounced, but former Foreign Minister of Kosovo Petrit Selimi has already said that UK-based pop star Rita Ora, who was born in Kosovo, will hold a concert.

Last year's event began with a cer-emony at the grave of first President Ibrahim Rugova in Pristina.

Kosovo officials also paid tribute at the memorial complex in the village of Prekaz, which commemorates Kosovo Liberation Army founder Adem Jasha-ri. He was killed along with 50 others when Yugoslav forces laid siege to his family home in the village in 1998.

US President Donald Trump has sent a letter of congratulation, declar-ing America's support for a "sovereign, multi-ethnic and democratic" Kosovo.

Kosovo formed part of the medieval Serbian state for centuries during the Middle Ages and was the site of an im-portant battle between Serbia and the invading Ottomans in 1389.

After the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans, its demography slowly changed and Serbs became a minor-ity in what was now a mainly Albanian land.

Serbia regained Kosovo during the Balkan wars of 1912-13. After the Sec-ond World War, the communist Yugo-slav government granted it the status of an autonomous province. Following an uprising in the late-1990s, which Serbia attempted to crush, NATO in-tervened with an air campaign that resulted in Serbia's withdrawal in 1999. However, the northernmost sliver of Kosovo remains under Serbia's de fac-to control.

4 5BELGRADE INSIGHT, Friday, February 9 - Thursday, February 22, 2018 BELGRADE INSIGHT, Friday, February 9 - Thursday, February 22, 2018

Find your copy of Belgrade Insight here:

www.balkaninsight.com/en/page/subscribe-to-belgrade-insight

ORDER DELIVERY TO YOUR DOOR +381 11 4030 303, subscription@birn.eu.com

Address: Kolarceva 7

MONUMENT Address: Cika Ljubina 9

HOTEL MOSKVAAddress: Balkanska 1

HOTEL SQUARE NINE Address: Studentski trg 9

CAFE SNEZANAAddress: Knez Mihailova 50

KOLARAC Address: Studentski trg 5

HOTEL EXCELSIOR Address: Kneza Milosa 5

HOTEL HYATT Address: Milentija Popovica 5

HOTEL CROWN PLAZA Address: Vladimira Popovica 10

HOTEL LE PETIT PIAFF Restaurant Mali vrabac Address: Skadarska 34

HOTEL MERIOT Address: Vase Carapica 2-4

BISTRO BARAddress: Vojvode Stepe 198

SKVER 44Address: Pozeska 44a

INTERGALACTIC DINNER Address: Internacionalnih brigada 22Address: Hotel Jugoslavija, BulevarMihajla Pupina 85A

TOURIST ORGANISATION OF SERBIAAddress: Trg Republike 5

NATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR DANCE Address: Kolarceva 3

RESTAURANT BIZU Address: Andre Nikolica 1-3

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF BELGRADE Address: Temisvarska 19

THE BRITISH INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF BELGRADE Address: Smetanina 12

RADISSON BLU OLD MILL HOTEL, BELGRADEAddress: Bulevar Vojvode Misica 15www.radissonblu.com/hotel-belgrade

FLY FLY TRAVEL Address: Aerodrom pult

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FLY FLY TRAVEL Address: YUBC Bulevar Mihajla Pupina 10v

RESTAURANT DVA JELENA Address: Skadarska 32

BELGRADE BELGRADE

Bel

grad

e in

bri

ef Balkan Cheese Festi-

val at Dom Omladine

On the weekend of February 17 to 18, the 17th annual cheese festival will showcase some of the region's best cheese at Dom Omladine. Visitors will have the opportunity to try some 300 types of cheese, including rare varieties, in combination with a selection of some of the finest wines from the Balkans. The festival will present cheese from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, France and Italy. The festival runs from 10am to 8pm on both Saturday and Sunday. Entrances tickets cost two euros and more information about the event can be found at: www.facebook.com/IzlozbaSira

Kosancicev Venac: ‘Belgrade's Montmar-tre'

Goran Vesic, Belgrade City Man-ager, announced on February 2 that the renovation work on the facades of around 40 apartment buildings in Kosancicev Venac in the centre of Belgrade will be completed by February 25. Vesic praised the work, saying this part of the city will stand out as Belgrade's answer to Montmartre in Paris. He empha-sised the importance of further renovating Belgrade because it "is a city that lives on tourism", according to the city authority website. In addition to renova-tion works on the facades, the cobblestone lanes that charac-terise the neighbourhood were repaired last year as part of the same renovation project.

Chinese-Serbian Youth Photography Festival

An exhibition of 80 photograph-ic works by young Chinese and Serbian photographers is on show at the Ethnographic Museum, Student's Square 13, until Friday, 23 February. The Chinese-Serbian Youth Pho-tography Festival will present works focusing on tradition, people, nature and society in contemporary China. Pieces in-cluded in the show were taken by photographers who took part in December's Homeland and Home competition, run by The Association for Educa-tional Exchange between China and Serbia. The competition received almost 100 entries. In addition to the photography exhibition, the association has also organised a week-long film festival at the museum. The as-sociation said the festival aims to increase cultural dialogue and the exchange of ideas be-tween the two countries within the context of China's New Silk Road project.

Photo: Flickr/Alexander Baxevanis

Photo: Beoinfo

The travel time from Usce to Kalemegdan with the cable cars is estimated to be approximately five minutes.

The current metro line network presented by the Progressive city government, headed by Mayor Sinisa Mali.

Cross-Danube Cable-Car Project Moves Forward

New Promise for First Belgrade Metro Line

The construction of a cable-car route from Usce Park over the Danube to Kalemegdan will start before the end of 2018, Belgrade’s mayor has announced.

The construction of a Belgrade metro has been on politicians’ agenda for decades, but as municipal elections approach, the mayor promised that the first subway line will be built by 2022.

Community engagement key to Belgrade’s green future, says firm that is converting the old Beobanka building into the city’s first sustainable eco-hub.

Siri SOLLIE

Construction work on the one-kilometre cable-car line is ex-pected to begin by the end of

this year, Belgrade Mayor Sinisa Mali told Vecernje Novosti on February 1.

A public tender for the aerial lift pro-ject will be launched during the sum-mer months, the newspaper’s report said.

Siri SOLLIE

Belgrade Mayor Sinisa Mali an-nounced on February 3 that concrete plans are on the table

to open the first Belgrade metro line by 2022.

“The idea of building a metro in Bel-grade has existed for decades, but we have never been closer to its realisa-tion,” Mali told Happy TV.

The cable car will take passengers from Usce Park’s skate park, close to Usce shopping mall, to Kalemegdan Park, where a station will be built at Be-ton Hala on the Danube riverbank.

The price tag of the project will be 1.8 billion dinars (approximately 1.5 million euros). According to Mali, two-thirds of the costs will be covered by the state budget and the remaining third will be taken from the city budget.

Construction work on the first metro line will start in two years’ time, he pledged, speaking ahead of municipal elections in the capital, which are due in the spring.

The first line will start at Makisko Polje in the Cukarica neighbourhood on the Sava riverbank, which is one of the most heavily-congested areas in the city.

“Makisko Polje has plenty of space and… the second station would be at Banovo Brdo in Pozeska [Street],” Mali said.

“The travel time from one side of the river to the other will only be five min-utes,” Mali said.

The cabins will move at a speed of about 20 kilometres per hour. The sys-tem will have 30 cabins, each of which will be able to seat up to 35 passengers.

Mali also emphasised that the cabins will also be able to transport bicycles and will be accessible for people with disabilities.

“It will free up the city centre for the amount of vehicles coming to Belgrade from the south - from Obrenovac, the Ibar highway, Zeleznik and Sremcica,” he added.

The final station on the metro line from Makisko Polje will be Pancevo Bridge, according to Mali.

“Safety and comfort for pedestrians and bicyclists will be improved. Emis-sion of harmful gases will be reduced,” Mali stated, stressing the ecological value of the project.

The purchase of the cabins and con-struction of the infrastructure will be financed through the Ministry of Trade, Tourism, Telecommunications, and im-plemented by the company Skijalista Srbije (Ski Resorts of Serbia).

After the first line is built, there are plans for several others, said Mali.

“Belgrade’s decades-long dream is close to realisation, and our city will, af-ter the construction of the metro, stand side-by-side with the metropolises of the world,” he said.

Alexis TRAUSSI

“Our mission is to re-vitalise old build-ings that are emp-ty and give them a new life in the

way of sustainable architecture and green architecture. We care about the

Serbian Architects Bringing ‘Sustainability

Closer to People’environment in the context of urban cities,” says Sara Petrovic, an architect working with Statt Werk Beograd.

Petrovic is one of a team of archi-tects at the Serbian sister company of Statt Werk, a German firm that bought Belgrade’s BeoBanka building for 4.25 million euros (500 million dinars) in 2016.

The 13-storey Beobanka build-ing is on the corner of Zeleni Venac and Carice Milice streets in central Belgrade. In 2002, the bank filed for bankruptcy and a decade later it was handed over to the state. By that time, the building had been stripped of its facades and looked like a skeleton towering over the Zeleni Venac farm-ers market.

They aim to turn the much-neglect-ed building into Serbia’s first sustain-able and environmentally-friendly eco-hub, complete with vertical gar-den facades, offices, exhibition spaces, an apartment hotel, observation deck, organic restaurant and lounge bar.

Statt Werk Beograd believe the green facade alone will reduce pollu-tion significantly in the immediate en-vironment.

“The whole neighbourhood will benefit from the green facade because it will reduce air temperature during summers and traffic noise because it is really loud by the bus station. The green façade absorbs the noise, tem-perature and air pollution,” Miljan Spa-sic, digital communications manager, told BIRN.

The company estimates the green façade will cut nitrogen dioxide levels by up to 40 per cent, traffic noise by up to 18 decibels and the air temperature by between seven and 15 degrees Cel-sius.

Statt Werk will also use modern and energy efficient building techniques and renewable energy sources to pow-er the building including solar, wind, kinetic, and geothermal energy. They will also recycle rain and waste water.

“All of these technologies can pro-vide enough energy for the building to be energy independent,” Statt Werk says in their Energetska Efikasnost (Energy Efficient) video on their web-site.

Getting the project properly off the ground is some way off, as the compa-ny is in the process of submitting pro-

posals and obtaining the many work permits needed from the city.

In the meantime, Statt Werk Beograd has held an architectural competition inviting designs for the green facade and proposals for the use of renewable energy sources. Statt Werk Beograd has also separately commissioned various permanent and temporary green art installations at the building.

“We had the architectural competi-tion for [professional] architects and students, two different competitions. Three of the students will work with us via six-month internships,” Petrovic says.

“We wanted to give students a chance to show us what they can do. The thing about green architecture, architects in Serbia do not have many chances to work in sustainability and green architecture.”

The competition took place at the end of last year and 200 participants submitted 65 proposals. Ten cash prizes of 10,000, 2,500 and 500 euros (about 1 million, 300,000, 60,000 di-nars) were awarded to professional ar-chitects and a further three cash prizes of 1,500 euros (nearly 200,000 dinars)

were won by students who will also take up their internships this summer.

“We weren’t obligated to announce a competition, but we wanted to be-cause… we wanted to encourage them [students] to see this is possible in Ser-bia and in the world, almost across the world, that is it normal to have projects like this”.

To further involve the wider Bel-grade community in Statt Werk’s mission, students from the Faculty of Media and Communications have installed a 50-metre ‘BioTop’ tree on the building. During the day, you can see recycled canvases attached to two wooden planks ‘seeds’ standing in the window frames that light up the tree after dark. This installation is meant to inspire passers-by to think about nature and sustainability within their community.

“We want to bring the whole concept of sustainability in life today closer to people. Not only in architecture but in all fields of life… We hope that people will see this example as something that actually works, that we made it sustainable, we made it green and it works here in Belgrade,” says Petrovic.

Photos: Nemanja DacicThe long neglected 13-story Beobanka, which has been towering over the Zeleni Venac farmers' market, has a new, green future in store.

Statt Werk Beograd has separately commissioned various permanent and temporary green art installations at the building.

6 7BELGRADE INSIGHT, Friday, February 9 - Thursday, February 22, 2018 BELGRADE INSIGHT, Friday, February 9 - Thursday, February 22, 2018

BUSINESSBELGRADE

Alexis TRAUSSI

Belgrade's Savamala dis-trict is now home to Share Square, the city's first 'anti-café'. As with other anti-cafes popping up across

Europe, customers are charged for the amount of time they spend here, rather than paying for drinks and snacks.

Located at 4 Koce Popovica street, Share Square, which opened in Decem-ber, also operates as a co-working space run by the NGO Coordinaide, which seeks to bolster communities by bring-ing individuals, groups and companies together.

Beyond providing a workspace, Share Square aims to encourage collab-oration and idea-sharing by providing a welcoming venue for young people, small businesses and large companies to share, teach classes, study and work.

"The idea was basically to make a platform but instead of an online plat-form a physical platform where we could have various DIY tutorials and 'how-tos' and translate that ease and affordability of doing those things on-line to real life," explains Share Square founder Ryo Ragland, who grew up in South Africa and later moved to Bel-grade.

He first discovered anti-cafes while visiting Georgia when he worked for the United Nations in Armenia.

Russian writer Ivan Mitin is credited with setting up the first anti-café a few years ago. They then became popular across Russia and other former So-viet Union countries before spreading throughout Europe.

When Ragland moved to Belgrade in March 2015, he felt it was a perfect con-cept to bring people together in a new way.

"I love Belgrade and I do think that it is a place that people like to go and peo-ple like to interact with each other so I think there is going to be this challenge of just trying to get people a little bit out of their comfort zone in order to learn different things or interact with people in new ways that they are not used to," he says.

Share Square has several rooms with large, communal tables, small two-person tables, a pyramid-like structure with pillows for relaxed reading, and a kitchen.

They also have specially-equipped classrooms including a SoundLab where people can teach others how to play an instrument or produce music, a CookLab with a kitchen for cooking classes, a TechLab for leaning about video games and programming, and a StyleLab for beauty and make-up tutorials. Customers are charged for the classes they sign up for with Share Square.

Ragland is encouraging people to come and teach lessons on anything imaginable. He believes that everyone

Instead of nurs-ing a coffee for hours while working online, customers only pay for classes and the time they spend at Share Square.

Inside Belgrade's First ‘Anti-Café'

has something worth sharing, so no matter if you just have a hobby or are an expert in a field, you can teach a class or just lead a group discussion.

"I think a lot of people have various professional skills or super random skills that actually other people are in-

terested in or would be interested in… We walk past people all the time and that person might be really great at making woven baskets or something like that but we may never know be-cause they have another job or they don't have enough money to open up

their own studio for that or whatever," he says.

One of Share Square's newest teach-ers, Miad Nakhavali, is an Iranian stu-dent living in Belgrade. He had never heard of an anti-cafe before he signed up to teach cookery classes here.

Given Belgrade's wealth of cafes, Na-khavali is aware that setting up another is something of a risk. "Frankly, I think it was a very brave idea to open such a place in Serbia," he says.

Nakhavali will soon be teaching a class on Persian cuisine. "My class is about cooking the slow-cooked Persian stew dish Ghorme Sabzi. It is the best-loved stew in the whole of Iran," he insists.

Based on attendance for his first class, he plans on continuing teaching at Share Square.

"That is the exciting thing for me that it is something that is very new," says Ragland.

"I don't know if there has ever been an open class concept like this any-where I have been. I am surprised [if] there hasn't been yet. It makes sense and I hope it is something that catches on not just for us but for everybody, I think in general it will be beneficial for society. You are going to end up taking classes with people who you would otherwise never talk to."

Share Square charges 300 dinars for the first hour and then 100 dinars for the following hours. To register and find out more about classes on offer visit: www.sharesqua.rs

Photo: Courtesy of Share SquareBeyond providing a workspace, Share Square aims to encourage collaboration and idea-sharing.

Share Square has several rooms with large, communal tables, small two-person tables, a pyramid-like structure with pillows for relaxed reading, and a kitchen.

Bu

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Norway Doubles Ser-bia Aid to 6m euros

Arne Sannes Bjornstad, the Norwegian Ambassador to Serbia, announced that Norway will give Serbia 6.3 million euros in 2018, twice the amount it gave in 2017 (3.1 million euros). The Serbian government's media office said half of the money would be spent on economic development of the country's poorest regions. The rest will be given to Serbia's minis-tries, the ambassador said. The ambassador said that in addition to the 6.3 million euros, Norway will continue to support Serbia through regional programmes.

Siemens Opens Second Factory in Serbia

German engineering and technology giant Siemens has bought out Milanovic Inzenjering in the central Serbian city of Kragujevac, which produces parts for rail vehicles. The Kragujevac company had been one of Siemens' suppliers for 15 years prior to the sale. "This is very important for Siemens because we are expanding our product placement, we will have more competition in the global market, and there are also opportunities for future projects. Both sides will benefit from this factory," Siemens Serbia managing director Udo Eichlinger told the media. The Kragujevac site is now Siemens' second factory in Serbia – the first one, which produces wind turbines, opened in the north-ern city of Subotica in 2004.

Serbia Sees Tourism Boost in 2017

According to the report published by the National Tourism Organisation of Serbia, just over three million people visited Serbia in 2017, a 12 per cent increase on 2016. There was a 17 per cent increase in foreign visi-tors (1.49 million in total) and an eight per cent increase in domestic tourists (1.59 million). Domestic tourists mainly visited spa centres and mountain resorts such as Vrnjacka Banja spa and Mt Zlatibor and Mt Kopaonik, whereas foreign tourists headed for cities instead with the majority staying in Belgrade and Novi Sad. The biggest number of foreign tourists come from: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Monte-negro, Croatia, Turkey and Russia.

City Suburb Awaits Industrial-Technolo-gy Park

Nenad Popovic, Serbia's technological development and innovation minister, has announced that the Belgrade suburb of Borca will this year become home to the biggest industrial-technology park in south-eastern Europe. Popovic confirmed that so far 40 companies from all over the world have signed a memorandum of understand-ing to open their research and development centres in Borca once the park is of-ficially launched. "The project will be very similar to those industrial parks in China, Frankfurt, and Berlin. It is a new concept as people will live and work in an urban en-vironment, while the industry will be clean because it is a high-tech industry," Popovic said, adding that the entire project will be financed by China's CRBC Group.

Chinese Steel Factory Tops Serbian Exporters' ListHe Steel Group, which bought the Zelezara steel mill in 2016, was the country's biggest exporter in January, Serbian Finance Ministry says.

Ivana NIKOLIC

A report by Serbia's Ministry of Finance says the Chinese-owned Zelezara steel mill was the country's biggest

exporter last month. The report, Current macroeconomic

developments, says He Steel Group ex-ported goods worth 70.4 million euros; the total export value of the country's 15 largest exporters in January amounted to 347.5 million euros.

The mill, located in the central town of Smederevo, still commonly known as Zelezara, was sold to China's He Steel Group on April 18, 2016 for 46 million euros.

The government first sold Zelezara in 2003 to US Steel for 23 million US dol-lars [about 17.5 million euros]. However, the US firm withdrew in 2012 following a crash in the steel market.

The purchase of Zelezara was the first major Chinese investment in Ser-bia. The company pledged to invest at least 300 million euros in the mill and retain the existing workforce of some 5,050 employees.

He Steel is the second largest steel producer in the world, with an annual production capacity of 50 million tons and employing 120,000 people in 30 countries. It had revenues in 2015 of 41.9 billion euros.

With exports worth 64.1 million eu-ros in January, Fiat Chrysler Automo-biles Serbia took second place.

The Italian car manufacturer came to the central city of Kragujevac in 2008. The factory has a capacity to produce 300,000 cars per year but currently makes fewer than 100,000.

Number three place goes to Tigar Tyers Company, located in Pirot, south-east Serbia. It exported goods in Janu-ary worth 30.5 million euros.

Further down the list were the Ser-bian energy company Nis, with exports worth 28 million euros, the pharma-ceutical company Hemofarm, on 14.2 million euros, and Yura Corporation, on 13.9 million euros.

Serbia's Statistical Office has also published data on the value of all ex-ports in 2017, showing a total of 13.86 billion euros – marking a rise of 13.1 per cent over 2016, the report said.

Photo: Flickr/Marco Raaphorst

Photo: HBIS Group

There is a demand for hairdressers in Serbia if we are to believe Serbia's biggest employment website, Poslovi Infostud.

The Zelezara mill, located in the central town of Smederevo, was sold to China's He Steel Group on April 18, 2016 for 46 million euros.

‘Overqualified' Graduates Struggle to Find JobsMore than half of Serbia's job vacancies require candidates educated to high school diploma level but most applicants are graduates, a jobs website research suggests.

Ivana NIKOLIC

The majority of jobs advertised in Serbia are aimed at appli-cants educated to high school

diploma level, yet most jobseekers are university graduates, a report by jobs portal Poslovi Infostud suggests.

Poslovi Infostud, Serbia's biggest em-ployment website that advertises doz-ens of jobs daily, published the survey findings on their website on February 6. The website conducted research using their own data from January to Decem-ber 2017. Poslovi Infostud published

a total of 31,000 job adverts last year, attracting approximately 200,000 ap-plicants. On average, 75 people applied for each job.

The survey found at least 60 per cent of employers were looking for candi-dates educated up to high school level, yet 56 per cent of applicants held a uni-versity degree.

Positions in highest demand during 2017 included salespeople, commer-cialists, administrative workers, drivers, warehouse staff, hairdressers, cooks, car mechanics, mechanical engineers and IT professionals – particularly Java

programmers, .NET developers and software developers.

IT graduates were most in demand among jobseekers with higher educa-tion degrees.

Conversely, positions with far more jobseekers than vacancies last year included content managers, economic project assistants, finance assistants, promoters and court executor/assis-tants.

People with disabilities were only eligible to apply to 6 per cent of all job vacancies.

Around 8,000 adverts listed fluency in one or more foreign languages as a prerequisite, most commonly English, German and Russian.

Serbia's unemployment rate during the last four months of 2017 stood at 12.9, while the average salary was just under 400 euros per month (45,000 dinars).

I think a lot of people

have various professional skills or super random skills that actually other people are interested in or would be interested in.

Ryo Ragland,Share Square

Founder

Photo: Courtesy of Share Square

8 9BELGRADE INSIGHT, Friday, February 9 - Thursday, February 22, 2018 BELGRADE INSIGHT, Friday, February 9 - Thursday, February 22, 2018

REGION FACES

Filip RUDIC

Serbia and Montenegro have been deemed "frontrunners" in terms of EU membership in the Balkans – although an overview of the issues the in-

dividual so-called "Western Balkans six" face offers a more nuanced perspective.

"We are proud to have Serbia recog-nized as a leader. We worked hard for that, and will have to work even harder in the weeks, months and years ahead," Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said, Serbia's national broadcaster, RTS, reported.

Montenegro's Prime Minister Dusko Markovic, meanwhile said he believed that his country might even join the EU before 2025, which the EU Strategy sets as the year by which Serbia and Monte-negro could become members.

"This is a positive signal that sends a clear message to the region that the European perspective for the Western Balkans is credible and 'alive'," Markovic said in Podgorica.

However, the overall assessment of the rule of law in the region in the Strat-egy strikes a more pessimistic tone.

It says that these countries show "clear elements of state capture", includ-ing links with organised crime and cor-ruption at all levels of government, as well as a strong entanglement of public and private interests.

"All this feeds a sentiment of impunity and inequality. There is also extensive political interference in and control of the media," the Strategy says.

Many observers see the European Commission's positive assessment of Serbia's progress mainly as a tool to lure Belgrade closer to the EU and away from Russian influence.

While the enlargement Strategy names Serbia a "front-runner", its EU in-tegration process has in fact lasted for years already.

Belgrade signed a Stabilisation and Association Agreement, SAA, back in 2008 and applied for EU membership in 2009.

With 12 negotiation chapters opened but only two provisionally closed, ac-cession even by 2025 still looks unlikely.

Montenegro has got much further.After declaring independence from a

state union with Serbia in 2006, it signed an SAA the next year and has been an EU candidate state since 2010. It has also joined NATO, in 2017.

While the EU's new strategy on Balkans gives Serbia and Mon-tenegro reason for optimism about their mem-bership, the other four countries feel out in the cold.

EU Strategy Exacerbates Winner-Loser Divide in

Balkans

It has since opened 30 of the 35 chap-ters and is thus a much clearer "front-runner" for EU membership than Ser-bia.

However, the European Commission has recommended a "greater use of leverage" in the negotiation framework with Montenegro, focusing on the rule of law.

ALBANIA, MACEDONIA MAKING 'PROGRESS'

Macedonia, by comparison, signed an SAA far back in 2001, but its EU and NATO integration has been blocked by the dispute with Greece over its name.

After a year of political turbulence brought a new government to power, Macedonia hopes for a breakthrough this year in its stalled NATO and EU ac-cession bids, provided a compromise is reached on the long-standing "name" dispute.

"Macedonia marks considerable progress. That was the focus that was determined yesterday in the strategy," government spokesperson Mile Bosnja-kovski said in Skopje on Wednesday.

He added that the Skopje govern-ment will continue to strive for a break-through in the dispute with Greece over its name.

Along with Macedonia, Albania is said also to be making "significant pro-gress" on its European path.

The Commission said it is ready to prepare recommendations to open ac-cession negotiations with both coun-tries.

However, Albania has long had issues in implementing EU-required judicial re-forms, which have delayed the opening

of chapters in its membership negotia-tions.

Justice reform is related to the most important chapters and, if fully imple-mented, would help resolve other diffi-culties as well.

But the last EU Progress Report, from 2016, noted weaknesses in almost every field except defence where, as a NATO member, it is considered "Well Ad-vanced".

Out of about 40 indicators, Albania is considered in the "early stages" in five of them, at a "low level of preparedness" in 15, and "average" in 19.

KOSOVO AND BOSNIA FAR BE-HIND IN MEMBERSHIP RACE

Two other countries in the region, Ko-sovo and Bosnia, are further behind.

A dispute between Bosnia's two enti-ties, the Federation of Bosnia and Herze-govina and the Serb-dominated Repub-lika Srpska, has prevented the country from even completing the EU Question-naire – which the European Commis-sion will use to prepare an opinion on Bosnia's application.

About 50 questions to do with po-litical criteria appear to contain major problems, though this has not been of-ficially confirmed.

Republika Srpska has meanwhile re-fused to recognise the data from the nation-al census published in 2016, which is one of the problems with the questionnaire.

Besides that, Republika Srpska does not wish to take part in the country's

working groups on EU integration, claiming that they were not defined within the Coordination Mechanism, which is also seen as a reason why the questionnaire is not ready.

"We need to implement the reforms to create a better and safer society for all citizens, without anyone scoring po-litical points," the chairman of Bosnia's Council of Ministers, Denis Zvizdic, told the news website Klix.ba.

Kosovo is even more left out of the process, mainly owing to continuing disputes over its independence, which Serbia and some other countries reject.

It signed an SAA in 2015, but it has still not met the EU criteria for visa liberali-sation, after failing to ratify a border deal with Montenegro.

It is also not clear even if the country can launch EU membership negotia-tions, when it remains unrecognized by five EU member states – Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Slovakia and Spain.

The EU Strategy notes the need for a legally binding agreement to resolve relations with Serbia, which still claims Kosovo as part of its territory.

Kosovo President Hashim Thaci com-plained on Facebook that the enlargement strategy does not provide Kosovo with any clarity about its European future.

"For well-known political reasons, un-fortunately, this document has failed to present a perspective of inclusive and equal membership for all countries in the region. In particular, this strategy has failed to provide clarity for Kosovo's EU membership," he said.

Photo: BetaCommissioner Hahn and High Representative Mogherini present the enlargement Strategy.

Photo: Alisa Koljensic Radic Trifunovic finds the Hague Tribunal to be beneficial, despite its adverse reputation in Serbia.

Alexis TRAUSSI

Maja Trifunovic, 54, did not know she was going to become a published author and a sought-after inter-

preter and translator when she went to the University of Belgrade to study Arabic language and literature as well as Turkish. All she knew was that she wanted to travel and had a deep-seated love of words and books.

"I did not think a lot at all before I chose what I wanted to study. I just knew I wanted to do something that was completely different. I did not think about what I would be doing after-wards. … So I chose Arabic because, at that time at Belgrade University, Arabic was the only 'exotic' language. That was the depth of my perception," she jokes.

After graduating, Trifunovic had her first foray as an interpreter when she moved to Kuwait and worked on a construction site. With the money she earned there, she moved to Egypt, "to study spoken Arabic, not the literary version that you learn at the Univer-sity," she remembers.

"I lived there and shared an apart-ment with friends, then I changed apartment – and it was a very nice time because we were all somewhere in-between adulthood and childhood. We were all very young there, with no fami-lies of our own. So, I got to be friendly with a lot of people coming from differ-ent parts of the world," she recalls.

From then on, Trifunovic has col-lected a resumé filled with accolades and indescribable experiences. She ac-companied Britain's heir to the throne Prince Charles during his visit to Bel-grade in 2016, was an interpreter for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, and wrote three books of her own.

Despite these achievements, she re-mains humble, and believes that her job as an interpreter and translator is to blend into the background and connect people through language.

WALKING BESIDES A PRINCE

"Before I also had the opportunity to work with people like politicians, for example, who were quite present in the media, but, for some reason, Prince

Maja Trifunovic opens up about her extraordinary life as a lover of words and languages whose work has taken her from Egypt to The Hague and back to Belgrade.

Interpreter, Translator, Author - She Does it All

Charles turned out to be a hit for me. Everyone was sort of like 'wow,'" Trifu-novic laughs.

The Prince of Wales and his wife came to Serbia in March 2016 as part of a five-day tour of the Balkans. Their visit marked 180 years of diplomatic re-lations between Serbia and Britain.

"It was a nice visit, very well organ-ised. He is someone very present in the media, and fortunately I got the oppor-tunity to compare that person and with my idea about him," she says. "We just ran around Belgrade and Serbia with a lot of TV attention, and so on. It was in-teresting."

The royal couple paid homage to the memorial to the Defenders of Belgrade and the Commonwealth Military Cem-etery, celebrating the collective strug-gle of both countries during World War II.

The British Prince, whose interest in faith issues is well known, took part in conversations with five local church community leaders, met Serbian Or-thodox Patriarch Irinej and visited the St Sava Church. Trifunovic was at his side throughout the tour.

"I was just interpreting into his ear and stepping away when that was over and, of course, hello and goodbye … I am just a sort of transmitter, or at least I attempt to be," she says of her work.

TRANSLATING FOR THE HAGUE TRIBUNAL

She has also worked for the ICTY, a controversial subject in Serbia and the Balkans generally, as the UN court dealt with highly contentious war crimes that took place during the horrific con-flicts that shook the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

Staffed by international judges and lawyers, the suspects on trial needed a plethora of interpreters to communi-cate their cases; Trifunovic was one of them.

She finds the court to be beneficial, despite its adverse reputation in Ser-bia. "The ICTY was a beneficial thing for the Balkans, but unfortunately no one, or not a lot of people from the Balkans, will admit that because we never had a proper reconciliation process," Trifu-novic maintains.

Working for years as a freelance interpreter for the ICTY, she simul-taneously translated for hours with-out pausing, even to say "um". She worked with many people who were accused of "command responsibil-ity" for war crimes committed during the 1990s, so her translations were more technical than those of her co-workers.

"They were still scary in many ways because you had an opportunity to see a lot of evidence of the crimes, and again to listen to very factual descrip-tions of really, really, really horrible, bloody, fatal events," she recalls.

FROM TRANSLATING NOVELS TO WRITING HER OWN

In addition to being a freelance interpret-er, she translates books for the Laguna pub-lishing house in Serbia. "At the time when I met the owner, he practically worked from his apartment, and during the [internation-ally imposed] sanctions, when there was not much to do, I just translated Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood and offered it to him, and he said 'OK,' and that is how we started our cooperation," she explains.

Most recently, she has worked on Arundhati Roy's newest book, Ministry of Utmost Happiness. This is the second time Trifunovic has translated one of the author's novels. She also worked on Roy's Man Booker Prize-winning debut novel, The God of Small Things.

"Arundhati Roy's first book, which got the Man Booker, The God of Small Things was, I think, the first one I trans-lated from English. And now, a long time after, I agreed again to translate her book, Ministry of Utmost Happiness, which is completely different from the first one," she notes.

From translating the novels and memoirs of others, Trifunovic has since gained literary prowess of her own.

She has published three books, Trka-ci na Duge Pruge, Savrsenstvo, and Pov-ratak [Long Distance Runners, Perfec-tion, and Return], which tackle themes of contemporary life in Belgrade.

"To start with, I did not know that I was writing my first book, Long Dis-tance Runners, I just thought I was writ-ing something for myself, for my own pleasure, and then one moment I real-ised I could share it," she says.

"That is how it began, and I have writ-ten three, now. It was kind of a writing spree and I will see what happens next," she shrugs.

Through it all, she says she has left parts of herself in both the books she wrote and those she translated.

"I choose books that are different, that demand a different effort from an interpreter, so it is always a challenge and I always like doing it," she says.

"So, I do leave myself in there, but I don't know if it is recognizable. I hope it is not, actually. I don't want someone to read my translation and say, 'Oh, this must be Maja.'"

Before I also had the opportunity to work with people

like politicians, for example, who

were quite present in the media, but, for some reason,

Prince Charles turned out to

be a hit for me. Everyone was sort

of like ‘wow'.Maja Trifunovic

For well-known political reasons,

unfortunately, this document has

failed to present a perspective of

inclusive and equal membership for

all countries in the region. In particular,

this strategy has failed to provide

clarity for Kosovo's EU membership.

Hashim Thaci,President of Kosovo

10 11BELGRADE INSIGHT, Friday, February 9 - Thursday, February 22, 2018 BELGRADE INSIGHT, Friday, February 9 - Thursday, February 22, 2018

OUT AND ABOUT

ONCE KOVAČ, ALWAYS KOVAČ ONCE ”KAFANA”, ALWAYS ”KAFANA”

RESTAURANT KOVAČ modern ethno restaurant

Bulevar Oslobođenja 221, Tel: 011 2462 343 www.restorankovac.com

Ivana NIKOLIC

Sara Bero has always been into fashion and ever since her daughters Irma and Ilda were babies, she has dressed them the same, taking care

that all clothing items match perfectly. This summer the twins turn ten and

like their mother, they also adore fash-ion. From Sara's Instagram profile, you can see the twins love dresses and skirts the most.

"Ilda was the very first girl with Down's syndrome to ever walk the runway. It was [fashion designer] Nada Koljensic's humanitarian show at Mon-tenegro Fashion Week and Ilda was

A Montenegrin fashion designer and mother of twins with Down's syndrome is using fashion and social media to tackle intolerance.

Montenegro Mum Fights Down's Prejudice with Fashion

then five," Sara, who lives in the capital Podgorica, told BIRN.

Driven by her two passions, the twins and fashion, Sara has recently launched I&I, her own brand of girl clothes named for the twins. Sara's fi-ancé came up with the idea, realising it could also turn out to be the perfect vocation for Irma and Ilda once they grow up.

Her collection was first shown last November at Montenegro Fashion Week and a second show is set for April. Sara says she's working hard to ensure everything is perfect for the show.

She has also set her sights beyond Montenegro, planning fashion shows across the region to promote the label. She's hoping the support shown to her girls in neighbouring states will trans-late into sales.

"I expect people to accept this brand the same way they accepted Irma and Ilda," she says.

On her Facebook, You Tube and In-stagram accounts, Sara publishes pho-tos of her small family doing everyday things, such as going to school, talking a walk, singing, dancing, drawing, laugh-ing, shopping, playing, and helping their grandpa in his bakery.

"I am proud to say that I managed to change attitudes toward children with

Down's syndrome, not only in Monte-negro but in the region as well. We have a lot of followers [on social media], a lot of people support us and send us mes-sages of love and support on a daily ba-sis," Sara says.

Her Instagram profile sara_irma_ilda has around 60,000 followers, while her accounts on Facebook and You Tube also have thousands of followers who post words of support and love.

However, the road to that love and support has been anything but easy.

BATTLE FOR LIFE

Sara, who is now 30, gave birth to the girls on her own birthday. All her pre-natal test results came back as healthy and there was no indication of Down's syndrome. The twins were in very poor health when born.

"The doctors' prognoses were very bad and the battle was tough from the outset. The girls were very small and very weak at birth," Sara recalls.

There have been many ups and downs, including when Irma lost all her hair and when Ilda was in a coma for four days when she was just a few months old.

Despite the doctors' warnings that the girls would barely learn to speak, walk

or live independent lives, Sara refused to give up and visited doctors, hospitals and health spas across the continent in search of various therapies.

"The three of us passed through half of Europe together. The region as well – Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Albania as well as Turkey and Italy," Sara says.

During all these years of fighting for Irma and Ilda's quality of life, Sara says her parents have been her staunchest supporters, particularly after she di-vorced and became a single mother.

For the past two years, Sara's fiancé has taken care of her and her two girls. They also receive some money from the state due to their condition, but

Sara has paid for a lot of treatments herself.

She is happy that she managed to get through the difficulties and help her twins as much as she could. Irma and Ilda go to regular school, enjoy dancing and swimming, visit a speech therapist and have pretty packed days.

"The girls also attended kindergarten regularly and were involved in every part of life from the very beginning. I walked with them a lot and everyone in our surroundings know that I have always been proud of them, I've never left them and I've never been ashamed of them," Sara says.

'LIKE WE WERE INFECTIOUS'

But still, there were a lot of people in Montenegro and across the region that viewed her twins with thinly disguised disgust.

"Our mentality is very different than abroad. For example, in Italy I saw a girl with Down's syndrome working in Mc Donald's and a guy in Napoli working in a supermarket. Those kids [with Down syndrome] are included in society, they have opportunities to feel useful and loved," she says.

"There are no such things here, but I hope it will all change soon."

Sara still remembers vividly the day in 2014 when she decided to open ac-counts on social media and use it to raise awareness about youngsters with Down's syndrome and demonstrate her twins were just like any other children.

"Due to the surgery, Irma was bald. At that time, we were in a shopping mall and people were staring at us as if we were aliens. I only squeezed her lit-tle hand, looked up, took a breath and moved on," Sara says.

"But people wouldn't stop, they were still staring. I walked into a shop and a woman next to me took her daughter away as if Irma and I were infectious."

When she returned home that day, Sara opened Instagram and Facebook accounts. From that day on, she has constantly published photos of her and the twins "because I wanted people to see that Down's syndrome is not trans-missible, that they [Irma and Ilda] are like all the other children and that all they need is understanding, love and support."

Apart from taking care of the girls, Sara also runs a fashion store in Pod-gorica and is involved in the work of Montenegro's first parents' association for children and youth with disabilities.

Being a single mother with Down's syndrome twins is far from easy, but Sara remains upbeat and focuses on the good days.

"You have to be ambitious and you have to fight for yourself, for your chil-dren. Don't give up until you try to con-quer and reach your goals," she says.

Photo: Courtesy of Sara Bero

Photo: Wikipedia/StevanKragujevic

Photo: Wikipedia/Nenad Cvetkovic

Photo: Wikipedia/Lumen roma

Photo: Wikipedia/Zvonko

Driven by her two passions, the twins and fashion, Sara has recently launched I&I, her own brand of girl clothes named for the twins.

Ivo Andric in his study.

Princess Ljubica residence in Kneza Sime Markovica street 8.

The main hallway at the White Palace at Dedinje.

The construction of the Kolarac Endowment at Student´s Square started in 1929.

Siri SOLLIE

PRIZRENSKA 7: IVO ANDRIC'S SECRET LOVER

In May 1941, Ivo Andric moved into the first floor of an apartment build-ing at Prizrenska 7 in central Belgrade, where he rented a room with the law-yer Brane Milenkovic and his mother.

The Second World War had just started and the 49-year-old Andric had returned from Berlin, where he had served as the Yugoslav ambassador since 1939.

If it wasn't for the plaque on the wall of the building, few might knew the No-bel Prize-winning author wrote some of his most famous works here: The Bridge on the Drina, The Woman from Sarajevo and Bosnian Chronicle: A Novel.

The famous novelist and poet had a penchant for married women, accord-

With Valentine's Day approaching, Belgrade Insight tours city address-es that were the scenes of roman-tic, often tragic, love stories.

Mapping Belgrade's Great Love Stories

ing to Nenad Novak Stefanovic, author of The Guide to the Love History of Bel-grade.

Andric married costume designer Milica Babic in 1958 after meeting her in 1931 in Belgrade.

When they met, however, Babic was married to Nenad Jovanovic, a Bosnian journalist and translator. Andric ap-pointed Jovanovic to an attaché's post at the embassy in Berlin, allegedly so he could spend more time with Babic, who was 17 years his junior.

Jovanovic was arrested in occupied Belgrade in 1942, after the Gestapo ac-cused him of being a British spy, claim-ing he was listening to British radio to decipher coded messages from Lon-don. He was sent to prison and later to a concentration camp.

Jovanovic survived the war but re-turned to Serbia in poor health and died in 1958. Andric married his widow shortly afterwards and the newly-weds then moved to Proleterskih Brigade 2a, a street that today goes under the name Andricev Venac.

THE WHITE PALACE AND TITO'S GREAT LOVE

The White Palace, the Beli Dvor, at Boulevard Kneza Aleksandra Kar-adjordjevica 96, in the city's eastern neighbourhood of Dedinja, was com-pleted in 1929 on the orders of Yugoslav King Aleksandar I.

However, he only spent only a short time at the palace. He was assassinated in Marseilles in 1934.

Josip Broz Tito, leader of Yugoslavia after World War II until his death in 1980, moved into the palace when the Communist-led Partisans took over the country in 1944/5.

Tito had a reputation as a woman-iser and married several times. But one woman said to have been Tito's great-est love was Davorjanka Paunovic who was 30 years younger than him and served as his right hand in the Partisan resistance movement in occupied Yu-goslavia.

When Belgrade was liberated in November 1944, Tito and Davorjanka moved into the White Palace.

However, Davorjanka suffered from tuberculosis and shortly after libera-tion was sent to Vrsac, a town in eastern Serbia, near Romania, to rest and recu-perate.

When she returned to Belgrade, the couple spent a while together at the pal-ace, but Davorjanka died of tuberculo-sis in 1946 at the age of only 25.

Tito buried her remains in the White Palace garden and her grave remains there to this day.

KONAK KNEGINJE LJUBICE AND A TALE OF VENGEANCE

Milos Obrenovic, the Prince of Serbia between 1815 and 1839, and again from 1858 to 1860, is famed for having known how to have a good time – particularly in the company of women.

According to Stefanovic's book, Obrenovic admired the Ottoman Sul-tan's right to have several wives and

wouldn't have minded keeping sev-eral himself, had the circumstances al-lowed.

However, Obrenovic's wife, Ljubica Vukomanovic, did not approve of her husband's affairs and even went as far as murdering one of his mistresses, Petrja, in 1819, shooting her in the chest with one of her husband's pistols at the royal residence in Gornja Crnuca, in central Serbia.

Ljubica was saved from her hus-band's wrath and the death penalty only because she was expecting a child at the time.

Ljubica's jealousy and vengeful anger is said to be the reason why Obrenovic ordered the construction of Princess Ljubica's Residence (Ko-nak Kneginje Ljubice) in Kneza Sime Markovica 8.

Allegedly, Obrenovic wanted her away from the royal residence in Kragujevac – the first modern capital of Serbia - where Obrenovic and his wife life until the princess's residence in Bel-grade was finished in 1831.

After the murder of Petrija, Ljubica lived at the residence with their two sons, Mihailo and Milan.

Obrenovic and his wife only saw each other during holidays and fam-ily occasions, which is said to have tor-mented Ljubica.

Legend has it that she once ap-proached Obrenovic with a loaded rifle, demanding he either forgive her or kill her. Overwhelmed by her courage, Obrenovic is said to have forgiven her.

THE KOLARAC ENDOWMENT AND A LOVE FOR THE CITY

Ilija M Kolarac, born in 1800, was a Serbian tradesman who came to Bel-grade as a young man with little money in his pocket.

Having a good eye for business op-portunities, however, he made a for-tune in trading foodstuffs with the Aus-tro-Hungarian Empire, and later also invested in the salt business.

He married Sindjelija Radovanovic in 1827 and lived with her until she be-came ill and died in 1855.

Kolarac never re-married and said that after his death he had no other goal in life other than to benefit his fellow people.

By the time of his death in 1878, Kolarac had amassed a fortune.

As he and Sindjelija had no children, to the despair of his relatives, he left all his wealth to fund Belgrade's first uni-versity and support literature.

Although his family tried to dispute the will, his wishes were upheld follow-ing several court hearings.

Kolarac's devotion to Belgrade and its people resulted in the Ilija M Kolarac Endowment, also known as the Kolarac People's University Build-ing, at Students' Square 5, in the centre of the city.

Construction began in 1929 and was completed three years later. The building is a monument of great cul-tural and historical importance and as such was declared a protected state monument.

HEALTH AND FAMILY

12 13BELGRADE INSIGHT, Friday, February 9 - Thursday, February 22, 2018 BELGRADE INSIGHT, Friday, February 9 - Thursday, February 22, 2018

WHAT'S ON ARTS

David GALIC

Belgrade has certain cultural events that are not only im-mensely important for the local cultural scene, thanks to their unique relevance

and quality of programmes, but equally important on the European and inter-national calendar of cultural events. When it comes to film festivals, there's no beating Cannes, Berlinale or Venice Biennale, but Belgrade's International Film Festival, Fest, is certainly one of the best and biggest in the region.

Fest has been around since 1971 and was the first ever film festival in Bel-grade. Held under the slogan A Brave New World, it showcased the absolute best that international cinematography had to offer that year, with the first film ever screened at the event being Rob-ert Altman's M.A.S.H.

Over the years, Fest has welcomed a number of high profile guests, ac-tors, directors, cinematographers and producers, including Robert De Niro, Johnny Depp, Harvey Keitel, Marcello Mastroianni, Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, Milos Forman and Bernardo Bertolucci, to name just a few.

During Fest Belgrade becomes a cin-ematographic hub, a place where au-thors, actors and producers gather from all across the world to view each other's works, to talk, discuss and explore new ideas, organise collaborations or sim-ply hang out and enjoy the high-calorie wonders of Serbian cuisine.

The 46th edition of Fest this year, un-der the slogan Come Closer, will feature 116 premiers and 10 cinematic classics. The programme is traditionally divided into two groups - Competition and Out of Competition.

The Competition programme group, which will feature films competing for several prizes awarded by Fest (Best Movie, Best Screenplay, Best Director,

Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Debut and the Jury Prize), is further divided into a main competition – the Serbian Film and Frontiers Programme - the last of which will feature eight subversive, controversial and arthouse films.

The Out of Competition group is di-vided into Fest 46, Fest 46 Gala, Focus Europe, Fest Presents, Thrills & Kills, Lit-tle Fest, Docufest, Microwave, PlayUK, Special Screenings and Fest Classic.

The festival opens with a movie that is considered to be the strongest con-tender for this year's Academy Award for best film, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri by Martin McDonagh. Another very talked-about film, Craig Gillespie's I, Tonya will close the Fest.

The Main Programme will feature some of the best films released in the past year, including The Shape of Water, The Square, Phantom Thread, Ladybird, Call Me By Your Name, Red Sparrow and Battle of the Sexes, as well as new films by Roman Polanski, Francois Ozon, Fatih Akin, Kaige Chen, Paul Schrader and other famed directors.

One of the highlights of the Thrills & Kills programme will undoubtedly be Mouse, set in Bosnia-Herzegovina, as well as Gela Balubani's Money. Do-cufest brings exciting and compelling documentaries on interesting and fa-mous subjects like Ryuichi Sakamoto,

Whitney Houston and Cary Grant, and PlayUK will showcase some of the best British films of the last year, as well as several VR (Virtual Reality) works.

The Microwave programme includes three small budget works, including the premiere of 12 Angry Women by Serbi-an director Jelena Markovic.

Some other highly recommended ti-tles for this year's Fest include Ederlezi Rising, Hitler's Hollywood, Roman J. Israel, Esq., Marjorie Prime, The Leisure Seeker, You Were Never Really Here, The Place, Nico, The Insult, The Charmer, Agape, The Forgiven, The Rider and Final Portrait.

This year's Fest will take place from Friday, February 23 to Sunday, March 4. In addition to the perennial Fest-favourite venue of Sava Centar, films will be screened at a number of other venues throughout Belgrade: Dom Omladine, the Belgrade Cultural Cen-tre, Cinema Fontana, the Yugoslav Film Archive, the Yugoslav Film Archive Mu-seum, the Vlada Divljan Cultural Centre and Cine Grand Rakovica.

Tickets for the festival opening cost around five euros while tickets for film showings cost between three and five euros, depending on which film you see and time of screening.

To get tickets, first check the Fest pro-gramme at www.fest.rs/Program-en, then head over to the relevant venue box.

This year's edi-tion of the region's most important international film festival, entitled Come Closer, will showcase the cream of foreign and local movies.

Denzel Washington stars in Roman J. Israel, Esq. Photo: FEST

Film Fest Invites Belgraders to ‘Come Closer'

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CLUBBINGAND LIVE MUSICFRIDAY FEBRUARY 09

• DOL, Kvaka 22, Ruzveltova 39, 9pm• Stereo Banana, Club Fest, Gradski

Park 2, 10pm • Zen (Zagreb, HR) + Homo

Simpson, Elektropionir, Cetinjska 15, 9pm

• Elemental, SubBeerni Centar, Cetinjska 15, 9pm

• Samostalni referenti, KST Club, Boulevard Kralja Aleksandra 73, 10pm

• Hole Premiere, Club Plastic, Takovska 34, 11pm

• Nusha & Pavi Trio, Ljutic, Stevana Sremca 5, 9pm

• Synth & Pop, Grad Cultural Centre, Brace Krsmanovica 4, 10pm

• SpectraDot w/ Ben Long, Drugstore, Boulevard Despota Stefana 115, 11pm

• Ognjem (Beyond House) All night Long, 20/44 Club, Usce bb, 11pm

• Loco Band Live: Total Disco!, Tranzit Bar, Brace Krsmanovica 8, 11pm

• Kaldrma's 2nd B-day, Kaldrma Bar, Skadarska 40, 8pm

• Kakadu, Zaokret, Cetinjska 15, 8pm• Radiohead Night, Polet, Cetinjska

15, 9pm• Kosmos w/ Betomeng, SMT#nG,

Kid Kimi & Doo, DOT Club, Francuska 6, 11pm

• MDMA by Dario Mexa, Ljubimac, Cetinjska 15, 8pm

• Girls, Boys and Toys, Bitef Art Cafe, Mitropolita Petra 9, 10pm

• FTP & KLIKA Live, KPTM, Zorza Klemensoa 22, 11pm

• Mr. Leenknecht / Chunks of Funk, Secer Club, Svetogorska 17, 11pm

• Doosan & Milos Starcevic, Ludost Bar, Karadjordjeva 44,10pm

• Chelina Manuhutu, Hype, Karadjordjeva 46, 11.30pm

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 10

• Festival of Solidarity, Elektropionir, Cetinjska 15, 5pm

• Osmi Dan, Club Fest, Gradski Park 2, 10pm

• Naked, Ciglana, Slanacki put 26, 10pm

• Sana Garic, Polet, cetinjska 15, 9pm• Di Luna Blues Band i Natasa

Guberinic, Soul Society Club, Drinciceva 1, 10pm

• Deca Apoklalipse, Iskaz, D Zoo, Brat, Dom Omladine, Makedonska 22, 10pm

• Turisti & Bikini, Grad Cultural Centre, Brace Krsmanovica 4, 10pm

• Festival Solidarnosti, Elektropionir, Cetinjska 15, 8pm

• Amy's House, SubBeerni Centar, Cetinjska 15, 9pm

• Me, Myself & Iron, Secer Club, Svetogorska 17, 11pm

• PARTY at Four | Papa Zho & Tranzistor DJ's, KPTM, Zorza Klemensoa 22, 4am

• Kisobran Party, Drugstore, Boulevard Despota Stefana 115, 11pm

• YES : Odopt (Discos Capablanca / Moscow), 20/44 Club, Usce bb, 11pm

• Danijel Cehranov All Night Long, Tranzit Bar, Brace Krsmanovica 8, 11pm

• Kaldrma's 2nd B-day, Kaldrma Bar, Skadarska 40, 8pm

• Tulum zveri, Zaokret, Cetinjska 15, 7pm

• Cherry On Top, DOT Club, Francuska 6, 11pm

• Mish Mash, Ljubimac, Cetinjska 15, 8pm

• Betty Boom, Bitef Art Cafe, Mitropolita Petra 9, 10pm

• Liminal - techno ritual, Zappa Barka, Usce bb, 10pm

• Cojke & Malina, Ludost Bar, Karadjordjeva 44,10pm

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 11

• Gipsy Jazz, Polet, Cetinjska 15, 8pm

• Norman Biker bend, Dom Omladine, Makedonska 22, 9pm

• PARTY at Four | 031 Republic, Battric & MIVU, KPTM, Zorza Klemensoa 22, 4am

• Ko nekad u 8, Grad Cultural Centre, Brace Krsmanovica 4, 10pm

• Sunday Beat, Mr Stefan Braun Club, Nemanjina 4, 11pm

MONDAY FEBRUARY 12

• Hot Chocolate, Mr Stefan Braun Club, Nemanjina 4, 11pm

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 13

• Malinada, Ludost Bar, Karadjordjeva 44,10pm

• Dizel Night, Mr Stefan Braun Club, Nemanjina 4, 11pm

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 14

• Stray Dogg, Elektropionir, Cetinjska 15, 9pm

• MANIVI, Soul Society Club, Drinciceva 1, 10pm

• Guns N Roses Tribute, Club Fest, Gradski Park 2, 10pm

• Josipa Lisac, Sava Centar, Milentija Popovica 9, 8pm

• Nicim Izazvan, Dom Omladine, Makedonska 22, 9pm

• Bad Copy, SubBeerni Centar, Cetinjska 15, 9pm

• Nipplepeople, Strafta, Admirala Geprata 14, 9pm

• Sajsi MC & DJ BKO, KPTM, Zorza Klemensoa 22, 11pm

• Big Love Party, Dorcol Platz, Dobracina 59b, 9pm

• Beyonce & Rihanna Night, Secer Club, Svetogorska 17, 11pm

• Mastering w/ Gramophonedzie & Oysha, Ludost Bar, Karadjordjeva 44, 10pm

• Girls Are Gonna Get Wild, Mr Stefan Braun Club, Nemanjina 4, 11pm

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 15

• Fuse, Club Fest, Gradski Park 2, 10pm

• Party at Four | Joma Maja & Goya (FunPro4), KPTM, Zorza Klemensoa 22, 4am

• Kristina Lalic, Dejan Milicevic, Mancha & Mark Panic, Milos Pesovic, KPTM, Zorza Klemensoa 22, 11pm

• Popi Divine / Pion / Coeus, DOT Club, Francuska 6, 11pm

• RNB Thursdays Delight, Brankow Club, Crnogorska 12, 11.30pm

• Mili Vanili, Secer Club, Svetogorska 17,11pm

• Nebojsa Intruder, Ludost Bar, Karadjordjeva 44, 10pm

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 16

• Consecration, Elektropionir, Cetinjska 15, 9pm

• Metallica Black Tribute, Club Fest, Gradski Park 2, 10pm

• EKV Tribute, SubBeerni Centar, Cetinjska 15, 9pm

• Mile Voli Disko, Grad Cultural Centre, Brace Krsmanovica 4, 11pm

• Music Reactions meets Technokunst, Drugstore, Boulevard Despota Stefana 115, 11pm

• Y/6543, Ljubimac, Cetinjska 15, 8pm

• Ladies DJ Special Salsa Party, Imago CUK, Decanska 14, 10pm

• Bokee & Nikola Mihailovic, DOT Club, Francuska 6, 11pm

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 17

• Grupa Beograd + Sergio Lounge, Elektropionir, Cetinjska 15, 9pm

• Drama Organ Trio, Soul Society Club, Drinciceva 1, 10pm

• Tús Nua + Vin Triste, Kvaka 22, Ruzveltova 39, 9pm

• BandX, Club Fest, Gradski Park 2, 10pm

• Stuttgart Online, Grad Cutural Centre, Brace Krsmanovica 4, 8pm

• Kralj Cacka, SubBeerni Centar, Cetinjska 15, 9pm

• Samba, Grad Cultural Centre, Brace Krsmanovica 4, 11.30pm

• Claro Intelecto LIVE, Drugstore, Boulevard Despota Stefana 115, 11pm

• Cherry On Top, DOT Club, Francuska 6, 11pm

• The Gift, Bitef Art Cafe, Mitropolita Petra 9, 10pm

• Sonja Sajzor, KPTM, Zorza Klemensoa 22,11pm

• Struka & Kendi, Zappa Barka, Usce bb, 10pm

• Hidden BG, Secer Club, Svetogorska 17, 11pm

• Cojke & Malina, Ludost Bar, Karadjordjeva 44,10pm

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 18

• Gipsy Jazz, Polet, Cetinjska 15, 8pm

• Sunday Beat, Mr Stefan Braun Club, Nemanjina 4, 11pm

MONDAY FEBRUARY 19

• Zoe Kelly, Polet, Cetinjska 15, 8.30pm

• On Tour, Studentski Grad Cultural Centre, Boulevard Zorana Djinjdica 179, 8pm

• Hot Chocolate, Mr Stefan Braun Club, Nemanjina 4, 11pm

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 20

• Malinada, Ludost Bar, Karadjordjeva 44,10pm

• Dizel Night, Mr Stefan Braun Club, Nemanjina 4, 11pm

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 21

• Spanish Music Night, Polet, Cetinjska 15, 8pm

• Mastering w/ Gramophonedzie & Oysha, Ludost Bar, Karadjordjeva 44, 10pm

• Girls Are Gonna Get Wild, Mr Stefan Braun Club, Nemanjina 4, 11pm

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 22

• Bullet for a Badman, Studentski Grad Cultural Centre, Boulevard Zorana Djinjdica 179, 8pm

• Nebojsa Intruder, Ludost Bar, Karadjordjeva 44, 10pm

• Electroshock presents: Feel Decimal Black, DOT Club, Francuska 6, 11pm

• RNB Thursdays Delight, Brankow Club, Crnogorska 12, 11.30pm

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9

Concert Hall, 8pmAir - Belgrade Philharmonic OrchestraConductor: Uros LajovicSoloist: Xavier de Maistre, harpProgramme: G. Ligeti, H. Rodrigo, P. I. TchaikovskyProduction: Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10

Music Gallery, 6pm Final Concert 11th Belgrade BaroqueAcademy for solo singers and intstrumentalistsProduction: Studio for Early MusicTicket fees: 500 dinars

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10

Concert Hall, 8pm Schubert EveningRTS Symphony OrchestraConductor: Bojan SudjicProduction: RTS Music Production

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 11

Concert Hall, 11am Kolarac Podium of Chamber MusicPiano duo Ivan Meles & Margita Drakulovic Meles Piano duo Ivan Meles & Marko MelesProgramme: Brahms, Offenbach, Shostakovich, Gershwin, RachmaninoffProduction: Music CenterAdmission free

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 13

Concert Hall, 8pm Music & Fashion - Italian Opera & Fashion eveningSoloists: Silvana Froll, sopranoAleandro Mariani, tenorBelgrade National Theater OrchestraConductor: Jacopo Sipari di Pescasseroli Fashion Show: Renato BalestraProduction: Fashion Agency FabrikaTicket fees: 1000, 1200, 1500 dinars

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14

Music Gallery, 6pmCycle: Encounter with an ArtistSoloists: Goran Muratovski, violinIrina Naumovska, pianoProduction: Music CenterAdmission free

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14

Concert Hall, 8.30pmThe Kings of SevdahMostar Sevdah Reunion & CD promotionTraditional music Ticket fees: 1200, 1500 dinars

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21

Music Gallery, 6pm Encounter with an ArtistAratos trioProduction: Music CenterAdmission free

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22

Concert Hall, 8pmJazz ConcertChamber Orchestra MuzikonProgramme: Shostakovich, GershwinTicket fees: 800, 1000 dinars

KOLARACPROGRAMME

Art

s in

bri

ef Serbian Fine Arts at

Ostavinska Gallery

Ostavinska, one of the newest indie galleries in Belgrade, has prepared a showcase of art techniques (drawing, collage, watercolour) by several underground, naive, art brut and folk artists from Serbia. The exhibition is called Srpske Lepe Umetnosti (Serbian Fine Arts) and opens on Tuesday, February 13 at 7pm, closing Sunday, February 18. There are daily guided visits at noon and admission is free.

Jelena Kelecevic's ‘Where Is My Place?'

The site-specific Where Is My Place? by Jelena Kelecevic is on view at the Salon of the Museum of Contemporary Art until March 19, offering a unique chance to explore Kelecevic's interpretation of the famous Artists' Building in Pariska Street. The installation consists of several segments including drawings, collages and photographs and can be viewed daily except Tuesdays from noon to 8pm. Entrance is free of charge.

Italian Fashion and Opera at Kolarac

As a way of saying thanks to the Italians who donated a grand concert piano to the Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment, the venue is hosting an evening of Italian music and fashion on Tuesday, February 13 at 8pm. The programme features a runway show by fashion designer Renato Balestra and a performance by Belgrade's National Theatre orchestra with conductor Jacopo Pescasseroli and soloist Silvana Froli. Tickets cost between eight and 12 euros depending on seating.

Mostar Sevdah Reunion Valentine's Day Gig

The most popular sevdah (Bosnian folk) music band in the world, Mostar Sevdah Reunion, is to perform for the city's lovers and the heartbroken. On Wednesday, February 14, they will play the Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment, performing modern and traditional versions of some of the most beautiful sevdah songs. The show starts at 8.30pm and tickets cost between eight and 12 euros.

Pigmalion Exhibition at NLB Bank Gallery

The ‘Pigmalion' exhibiton opens on Tuesday, February 13 at 7pm at the NLB Gallery, Boulevard Mihajla Pupina 165v in New Belgrade. It will showcase a collection of art works by various domestic artists. The exhibition is a result of two art colonies organised by the Pigmalion art collective during 2017 – one in spring and another during autumn. The exhibition opening will include the launch of the book Pigmalion Monography 2017 that includes works produced by the artists who participated in the colonies. The exhibition runs until March 20 and entrance is free.

14 15BELGRADE INSIGHT, Friday, February 9 - Thursday, February 22, 2018 BELGRADE INSIGHT, Friday, February 9 - Thursday, February 22, 2018

GOING OUT THEN AND NOW

A new addition to the huge line-up of cool bars and clubs in Cetinjska, Sprat is a multi-functional bar that specialises in craft beer.

David GALIC

This bar is actually an extension of one of Cetinjska's most popular bars, Zaokret, and is on the floor above the

popular hangout, hence the name Sprat, which is Serbian for ‘floor'. Operated by the same team, the Kisobran collective that for many years now is known for throwing great indie rock and electronic music parties, Sprat is supposed to be a bit calmer and more chilled than Zaokret.

If you'd rather listen to music at a lower volume and focus on conversations with your friends instead of dancing, then you're better off going to Sprat. If you're a fan of craft beer, Sprat is an even more attractive place for you. It also has a little more space than Zaokret, so it's a much more comfortable and relaxed place during the week, though it gets just as crowded as its ground floor counterpart on weekends.

Another interesting thing about Sprat is that it opens a bit earlier, which allows the venue to host different types of events, such as workshops and other educational meetups and get-togethers.

However, Sprat is essentially a relaxed, low-noise bar that has a great variety of excellent (mostly domestic) craft beer on tap at all times. That's why most people come here, to drink quality beers with friends.

Sure, there are now plenty of places in the city where you can drink an assortment of craft beer, but Sprat has the added advantage of being located in Cetinjska - which is pretty much the party hub of the city. That means that you can easily start your night off with a couple of nice beers here and know that you have a dozen other clubs and bars within 100 metres of your table. Heck, you can even simply head

down the stairs to Zaokret for a more club-like experience.

Sprat has 16 beers on tap, four of which are regular industrial beers and 12 of which are craft beer. Here you'll find beer from most of Serbia's best small breweries, such as Dogma, Zebrew and Crow, but you'll also find foreign ones like BrewDog on tap as well.

The bar also offers nice selection of board games that can be played against a backdrop of quiet, unobtrusive music.

The interior design is nothing new, but very charming. Most of the tables have completely different chairs

assigned to them and there are a bunch of cool retro sofas around the bar. A little bit of brick and wood along with a lot of plants and flowers make it a very inviting place to hang out. Sprat is very hip-looking and a lot more chic in style than most other craft beer bars in Belgrade, which tend to look slightly more like hole-in-the-wall, biker/rock bar dives.

It certainly wasn't hard for Sprat to achieve popularity very quickly, considering it's located in the most popular nightlife hotspot in Belgrade and that it shares a building and management with one of that area's most popular clubs.

However, it will be interesting to see if Sprat will be able to maintain its popularity when the summer arrives, considering it doesn't have a terrace and might get pretty stuffy and hot once the temperatures start to rise.

But for now, if you're looking for a very hip place in a very hip area of Belgrade to test out some of the country's best craft beers, you really can't go wrong with Sprat.

SPRATAddress: Cetinjska 15

Contact: www.facebook.com/spratbar

Sprat

Sprat is essentially a relaxed, low-noise bar that has a great variety of excellent (mostly domestic) craft beer on tap at all times. Photo:Sprat

Two Belgrade Architecture students have won the Nis Green City – New Energy prize for their mural in Pop Lukina street.

Alexis TRAUSSI

The end wall of an apartment block on Pop Lukina street near Belgrade's Savamala district has become a giant canvas for Sara Antov and Dragan Vukovic, two 23-year-old masters

students from the city's Faulty of Architecture. Antov and Vukovic's mural design won the

Green City – New Energy competition, which was sponsored by NIS in cooperation with the City of Belgrade. The duo beat entries submitted by more than 40 individual artists and groups during the month-long competition held in December, also winning the 1000-euro (120,000 dinars) prize.

The apartment block was picked to host the mural because of its proximity to one of Nis' many gas stations in Belgrade.

"We are architects and this is the first time we have done something like this. We saw the call to the public on our university website and it sounded interesting because it was a new chal-lenge for us. It is connected to architecture, but it isn't something we do every day… you can have more freedom with this so that is why we decided to create this mural," says Antov.

As Antov and Vukovic had never worked on a mural before, they took their time when it came to settling on the design.

"We did a lot of research about murals and techniques and we thought about the place and context and everything. It is a mixture of every-thing," says Antov.

The Green City – New Energy competition invited artists to submit designs that commented on and brought attention to the future of Serbian technology and the environment.

"In order for us to properly salvage a city that is built for its residents, we need to focus on its future on a daily basis. This includes caring for green surfaces, public spaces, neighbourly rela-tions and the overall health of the community," read the public call for entries on the Nis website.

Antov and Vukovic's design features a giant leaf with a cityscape at the foot of the mural, which they believe incorporates all the themes set out in the competition's guidelines.

"The symbol of a leaf represents the environ-ment in a minimalist way, and within this symbol we found a way to incorporate different themes. When you see the symbol of the leaf you can see a grid and that grid represents a network within

a strong community that consists of different fac-tors like a social factor, infrastructure and similar," explains Vukovic.

He believes Belgrade must develop in a har-monious way to work with nature or "tehnologija predlaze a ekologija odobrava", which translates to "technology suggests and ecology approves".

"The main ideology behind ‘technology sug-gests and ecology approves' is that you cannot develop technology in a way that degrades and destroys nature. So if we develop technology we need to support nature," he explains.

As of now, both Antov and Vukovic agree that life in Belgrade is relatively healthy. They point to key green spaces around the city like Kalemeg-dan fortress, Tasmajdan park and Ada lake. How-ever, Vukovic is concerned about the different developments now taking place in Belgrade.

"We have new investors who are building a lot and that is endangering our ecology. So I think the mural is a good way to raise awareness about the environment," he says.

Antov vehemently agrees. She says the biggest motivation for the project is "to save nature, to inspire people to think about nature and the envi-ronment and its development".

Prize-Winning ‘Green' Mural Unveiled

Two-Day Modern Serbian Jazz Fest

While Serbia has many excellent jazz fests to brag about, from the Belgrade Jazz Fest to Nisville and the Pancevo Jazz Fest, the Metropolis Jazz

Fest is not one to be missed either. This is a new jazz fes-tival that is dedicated to shining the spotlight on bright, young homegrown jazz talent in Serbia.

The festival will take place on Friday and Saturday, February 9-10 at Dom Omladine. It will feature some of the coolest and most cutting edge Serbian jazz groups, such as the Ugljesa Novakovic Quintet, Fish in Oil, the Drama Organ Trio, Hashima, Eyot and more. Tickets for one day cost 8 euros, two-day tickets are €13.

Here's a real Valentine's Day treat for love-birds and those who might not have a date alike. Few artists have made such a pro-found impact on the former Yugoslavia's pop culture, arts

and music scene as Josipa Lisac. This living legend was Lady Gaga before Lady Gaga was even born, an avant garde pop singer with the sensibility of Barbra Streisand and audacity of John Waters; transgressive, romantic and insanely talented.

Following sell-out concerts throughout former Yugoslav states and across Europe, Josipa will close the tour, which celebrates her 50-year long career, at Belgrade's Sava Centar on Wednesday, February 14. Tickets cost between €15 and €24 depending on seating and are selling quickly.

Legendary Diva Josipa Lisac's at Sava Centar

Claro Intelecto LIVE at Drugstore

If you thought there's was no way to top 2017's underground clubbing offer in Belgrade, think again. On Friday, February 17, Drugstore is bringing UK's Claro Intelecto - one of the biggest names in techno music today and the man behind the classic track Peace of Mind - to the city. Support acts are local veterans Regen and Marko Mi-losavljevic. Ticket prices are yet to be announced but are likely between six and 10 euros at the door.

Female Rockers Zen at Elektropionir

Indie, post-rock, kraut-rock, shoegaz-ing... these are just some of the genres that these amazing women from Croa-tia blend and meld together in their live acts, which usually feature engaging video art and great stage energy. After an amazing show at Elektropionir a few years back, they'll be gracing the same Belgrade venue on Friday, Febru-ary 9 to promote their new album, supported by a newly-formed Belgrade post rock duo, Homo Simpson. Admis-sion is six euros at the door.

Post-Metal Stars Consecration Play Solo Gig

Consecration is one of the most excit-ing Serbian rock bands that are on the slightly heavy side of the spectrum. They have a solid cult following and will be playing at Elektropionir on Fri-day, February 16. If you're in the mood for heavy, sludgy, dreamy riffs and melodies and sprawling, meditative tracks, be sure to check out the show at Elektropionir. Tickets cost seven euros at the door and the show starts at 9pm sharp.

Music Reactions and Technokunst at Drugstore

The up-and-coming booking agency from Belgrade, Music Reactions, is teaming up with Budapest clubbing legends, Technokunst, on Friday, February 16 at Drugstore. They are bringing Dork and Isu, residents at the legendary Larm club in Budapest and co-founders of Technokunst, who will be supported by Music Reactions resi-dents RAR and Betomeng. Tickets for the party cost six euros at the door.

Croatian Hip Hop Stars at New Cetinjska Venue

When SubBeerni Centar first opened a month or so ago, they promised exciting live shows and quality music on a regular basis. Judging by the band booked for Friday, February 9, they are definitely delivering on that prom-ise. Elemental is a Croatian hip hop favourite across the region and their live shows are always a lot of fun. This is a perfect chance to check out the new venue too. Tickets cost eight euros at the door.

The building at Pop Lukina street before the mural. The apartment block in Pop Lukina street today.

Sara Antov and Dragan Vukovic working on the mural in January.

Photo: The Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade Photo: Alexis Traussi

Photo: Alexis Traussi

16 BELGRADE INSIGHT, Friday, February 9 - Thursday, February 22, 2018

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ARTS AND CULTURE

Opera, Ballet and Classical

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 09

• Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, Uros Lajovic (conductor), Xavier de Maistre (harp), Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment, Studentski trg 5, 8pm

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 10

• 11th Baroque Academy, Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment, Studentski trg 5, 6pm

• Opera: L'elisir d'amore, Gaetano Donizetti, MetOpera Live streaming, Cineplexx Usce Shopping centar, Bulevar Mihajla Pupina 4, 6pm

• Schubert Evening, RTS Symphony Orchestra, Bojan Sudjic (conductor), Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment, Studentski trg 5, 8pm

• Opera: Aida (Verdi), National Theatre in Belgrade, Francuska 3, 7pm

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 11

• Piano duo, Kolarac Podium of Chamber Music, Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment, Studentski trg 5, 11am

MONDAY FEBRUARY 12

• Valentina Krempatic (guitar), Jana Simic (cello), Artget Gallery, Trg republike 5, 8pm

• Ballet: Nutcracker (Tchaikovsky), National Theatre in Belgrade, Francuska 3, 7.30pm

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 13

• Ivan Basic (piano), Congress Hall of the City Assembly, Dragoslava Jovanovica 2, 8pm

• Music & Fashion, Jacopo Sipari di Pescasseroli (conductor), Silvana Froli (soprano), Aleandro Mariani (tenor), Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment, Studentski trg 5, 8pm

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 14

• Mostar Sevdah Reunion, Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment, Studentski trg 5, 8.30pm

• Encounter with an Artist, Goran Muratovski (violin), Irina Naumovska (piano), Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment, Studentski trg 5, 6pm

• Opera: Madame Butterfly (Puccini), National Theatre in Belgrade, Francuska 3, 7pm

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 17

• Opera: Don Giovanni (Mozart), National Theatre in Belgrade, Francuska 3, 7pm

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 18

• Belgrade Wind Orchestra, Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment, Studentski trg 5, 11am

MONDAY FEBRUARY 19

• Bojan Bulatovic (countertenor), Dragana Dimic (piano), Artget Gallery, Trg republike 5, 8pm

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 20

• Ballet: Queen Margot (Bregovic), National Theatre in Belgrade, Francuska 3, 7.30pm

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 21

• Encounter with an Artist, Aratos trio, Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment, Studentski trg 5, 6pm

• Opera: Tosca (Puccini), National Theatre in Belgrade, Francuska 3, 7.30pm

Exhibitions and Events

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 09

• Exhibition: "Mimesis", Mladen Djurovic, ULUS Gallery, Knez Mihailova 37, 10pm

• Cycle: Technical Sciences: Contemporary Research and Applications, Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment, Studentski trg 5, 6pm

• Week of Chinese Documentary Film, Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade, Studentski trg 13, 6pm

• Exhibition: "Biography of Frida Kahlo", Marija Hese, Instituto Cervantes, Cika Ljubina 19, 7pm

• Poetry Night, Polet, Cetinjska 15, 7.30pm

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 10

• Exhibition: "Radical Softness", Drina Gallery, Andricev venac 4, 7pm

• Exhibition: "Search", Faculty of Applied Arts, Ruzveltova 39, 8pm

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 11

• Movie: The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment, Studentski trg 5, 8.30pm

• Exhibition: Ivan Kocic, Nenad Colic, Ciglana, Slanacki put 26, 6pm

• PubQuiz, Zaokret, Cetinjska 15, 7.30pm

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 13

• In Honor of Ursula Le Guin, Dom Omladine, Makedonska 22, 6pm

• Figure of Narrator in Serbian (post) Modernist Novel, Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment, Studentski trg 5, 6 pm

• Blazing to Serbia, Grad Cultural Centre, Brace Krsmanovica 4, 6.30pm

• Talk cycle: Participatory democracy, Dom Omladine, Makedonska 22, 7pm

• Exhibition: "Goods", Jelena Marjanovic, Dom Omladine, Makedonska 22, 7pm

• Exhibition: "Serbian Fine Arts", Ostavinska Gallery, Kraljevica Marka 8, 7pm

• Engaged lectures, Dom Omladine, Makedonska 22, 7pm

• Language Café, Grad Cultural Centre, Brace Krsmanovica 4, 8pm

• Radio Day, Polet, Cetinjska 15, 4.30pm

• Poetry Night, Polet, Cetinjska 15, 8pm

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 14

• Art for All, open class, Grad Cultural Centre, Brace Krsmanovica 4, 10am

• Pop-up exhibition of works from open class, Grad Cultural Centre, Brace Krsmanovica 4, 7pm

• Talk: Mystery of Love, Studentski Grad Cultural Centre, Boulevard Zorana Djindjica 179, 6pm

• Psychology of Aggression, Dom Omladine, Makedonska 22, 7pm

• Zeichnen bis zur Raserei (movie), Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Grad Cultural Centre, Brace Krsmanovica 4, 8pm

• Pop Literature, Studentski Grad Cultural Centre, Boulevard Zorana Djindjica 179, 8pm

• Love is Just a Cut: The Vision of Love in an Alternative Movie, Studentski Grad Cultural Centre, Boulevard Zorana Djindjica 179, 9pm

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 16

• Book Exhibition "The Spring of Life", Studentski Grad Cultural Centre, Boulevard Zorana Djindjica 179, 1pm

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 17

• Balkan Cheese Festival, Dom Omladine, Makedonska 22, 10pm

• Winter Book Market, Polet, Cetinjska 15, 4pm

• Dorcol Market vol. 9, Dorcol Platz, Dobracina 59b, 11am

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 18

• Balkan Cheese Festival, Dom Omladine, Makedonska 22, 10pm

• Norwegian Film Cycle: The Wave, Grad Cultural Centre, Brace Krsmanovica 4, 7pm

• Book Promotion "Nasi Dani", Polet, Cetinjska 15, 7pm

• Hand Made Festival, Dorcol Platz, Dobracina 59b, 11am

MONDAY FEBRUARY 19

• Psychotherapy, psychodrama and sociodrama, Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment, Studentski trg 5, 6pm

• Delicatessen Monday, Grad Cultural Centre, Brace Krsmanovica 4, 7pm

• Tribune of the Society of Fantasy Fans "Lazar Komarcic", Dom Omladine, Makedonska 22, 7pm

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 20

• Cycle: The legend of King Artur and the Knights of the Round Table, Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment, Studentski trg 5, 6pm

• Long and Short: characters in a documentary film, Studentski Grad Cultural Centre, Boulevard Zorana Djindjica 179, 7pm

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 21 • Exhibition: "Migration –

noitargiM", Bojana Lukic, Studentski Grad Cultural Centre, Boulevard Zorana Djindjica 179, 7pm

Theatre

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 09

• The Bereaved Family (Nusic), National Theatre in Belgrade, Francuska 3, 7.30pm

• The Blacksmiths, National Theatre in Belgrade, Francuska 3, 8.30pm

• Accidental death of an Anarchist (Fo), Yugoslav Drama Theatre, Kralja Milana 50, 8pm

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 10

• The Possessed (Dostoyevsky), National Theatre in Belgrade, Francuska 3, 8.30pm

• A Month in the Country (Turgenev), Yugoslav Drama Theatre, Kralja Milana 50, 8pm

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 11

• Richard the Third (Shakespeare), National Theatre in Belgrade, Francuska 3, 7.30pm

• My Prizes (Bernhard), National Theatre in Belgrade, Francuska 3, 8.30pm

• Free Exchange Hotel (Feydeau), Yugoslav Drama Theatre, Kralja Milana 50, 8pm

MONDAY FEBRUARY 12

• The Misunderstanding (Camus), National Theatre in Belgrade, Francuska 3, 8.30pm

• Betrayal (Pinter), Yugoslav Drama Theatre, Kralja Milana 50, 8pm

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 13

• The Woman from Sarajevo (Andric), Yugoslav Drama Theatre, Kralja Milana 50, 8pm

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 14

• Coffee White (Popovic), National Theatre in Belgrade, Francuska 3, 8.30pm

• The Einstein's Dreams, Yugoslav Drama Theatre, Kralja Milana 50, 8pm

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 17

• Coffee White (Popovic), National Theatre in Belgrade, Francuska 3, 8.30pm

• A Month in the Country (Turgenev), Yugoslav Drama Theatre, Kralja Milana 50, 8pm

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 18

• The Miracle in Sargan (Simovic), National Theatre in Belgrade, Francuska 3, 7.30pm

• The Folk Play (Dimitrijevic), National Theatre in Belgrade, Francuska 3, 8.30pm

• Free Exchange Hotel (Feydeau), Yugoslav Drama Theatre, Kralja Milana 50, 8pm

MONDAY FEBRUARY 19

• The Great Drama (Kovacevic), National Theatre in Belgrade, Francuska 3, 7.30pm

• Small Marital Crimes (Schmitt), National Theatre in Belgrade, Francuska 3, 8.30pm

• The Imaginary Invalid (Moliere), Yugoslav Drama Theatre, Kralja Milana 50, 8pm

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 20

• Electra (Kis), National Theatre in Belgrade, Francuska 3, 8.30pm

• Don Juan (Moliere), Yugoslav Drama Theatre, Kralja Milana 50, 8pm