21 Sep Festival „Miredita, dobar dan“ Concluded

Belgrade, September 21, 2014 – The debate named ‘’Reconstruction of the future’’ held today at the premises of Media Center concluded the festival „Miredita, dobar dan“, which managed to at least introduce the citizens of Belgrade to the cultural scene of Kosovo during the past four days. Young artists from Kosovo expressed their gratitude to the organizers of the festival for enabling them to present their work to Serbian public and announced the next encounter which will be held in Pristina.

‘’This type of meetings, mutual introduction and conversations are what truly and honestly leads to the normalization of relationships between Belgrade and Pristina’’, said Maja Stojanovic, Executive Director at Civic Initiatives. ‘’We must change the political discourse through culture and conversations and spread the values which all of us who gathered here today share; this is the only possible manner in which mutual understanding and normalization of relationships can be achieved, which is something to which all of us aspire at the end of the day.’’

During the four days of the festival, the guests had the opportunity to enjoy the concert of jazz singer Rona Nishliu, who, in her recognizable style and accompanied by Gent Rushi on the piano, performed songs from Kosovo and Albania, and sang her own song ‘’Suus’’ at the end, with which she came fifth on the Eurovision Song Contest held in Baku in 2012.

Theater lovers had the pleasure to watch the play ‘’The Dealers’’ directed by established director Bekim Lumi, as well as the play ‘’Oh Good Days’’ directed by his younger colleague, Kalterim Balaj. The Belgrade public was also introduced to the Literature festival ‘’Polip’’, and the Blerta Zeqiri’s winning movies from the Sundance and Sarajevo film festival  were presented, as well as the films from the Student film festival ‘’Skena Up’’.

Bekim Fehmiu, Albanian, Kosovo, Belgrade, Yugoslav and world actor – a symbol of joint past, together with all of its challenges, achievements and misunderstandings, served as inspiration for establishment and realization of the festival. Branka Petric, the spouse of the late actor, also attended the festival events and did not hide that she was thrilled by everything she saw and heard.

“Bekim would be exhilarated if he could have attended these events. He would be very proud of them. All of them are exquisite artists’’, said the renowned actress.

The Festival is organized by: Civic Initiatives, Policy Center and Integra from Pristina, and supported by Forum ZFD for West Balkan and Kosovo Foundation for Open Society.