07 May The “Mirëdita, dobar dan!” festival, sixth edition, will take place from May 29th to June 1st this year

The “Mirëdita, dobar dan!“ festival, a unique event which has presented Kosovo’s cultural and social scene to Belgrade since 2014, will take place between May 29th to June 1st this year. By introducing the audience with artists and performers, who are representatives of the modern Kosovo cultural scene, the festival is aiming to initiate changes in Serbia’s and Kosovo’s social and cultural communities and create a tradition of collaboration, which will further contribute to achieving a stable relationship between Belgrade and Prishtina.

This year, the festival takes place in a specific climate, when the relationship between Belgrade and Prishtina is at its lowest since the start of the Brussels Agreement. An evident political crisis is reflected in the everyday lives of the citizens in Serbia and Kosovo. This further discourages collaboration between the two societies, not only in the cultural sphere but also in trade, sports, education, and all other sectors. The festival sends out a clear message to Kosovo’s and Serbia’s public and to political elites – barriers must be broken, not built. 

As during previous years, visitors will have the chance to learn more about Kosovo’s cultural scene through a variety of theatre plays, performances, films, concerts, and exhibits. A part of the festival will be dedicated to discussions and debates about the future of the Belgrade – Prishtina relationship and the importance of collaboration for the two societies. 

The official opening of the “Mirëdita, dobar dan!” festival will take place on Wednesday, May 29th with the screening of the movie “Cold November”, directed by Ismet Sijarina, a movie that has been presented in many international film festivals that have resulted with 2 wins and three nominations. As a pre-opening event will be the artistic performance “Let’s make love” by Shkumbin Tafilaj. Throughout the festival, the audience will have the opportunity to see the documentary film “Ferdonija”, a film by Gazmend Bajri, which demonstrates the life of one woman who has lost her entire family during the last war in Kosovo. A theatre play written and directed by the famous Albanian actor and director Enver Petrovci called “Kreolet e Ballkanit” will be presented during the festival for all theatre lovers. During the festival three different debates will be organized to discuss matters related to missing persons, new drama writing in Kosovo and history text books. Together with these debates three specific publications with be promoted: Memory book with stories of families of the missing “Living with memories of the missing” published by forumZFD in Kosovo and Integra, “ONE FLEW OVER THE KOSOVO THEATER – An Anthology of Contemporary Drama from Kosovo” published by  Multimedia (Kosovo) and Beton (Serbia), “The History of Kosovo in the history textbooks of Kosovo, Albania, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia” written by Shkelzen Gashi and published by Alter Habitus.

The closing performance of this year’s festival will be a very thrilling concert of the trio band “Don’t listen to your neighbors” from Kosovo, who are well known because they have always maintained a well-refined collection of traditional Albanian repertoire, and in the last few years they have developed quite a unique style with elements of jazz delivered through sophisticated arrangements. Afterward a performance by DJ Matale from Prishtina will conclude the “Mirëdita, dobar dan!” festival 2019.

The inspiration for the  “Mirëdita, dobar dan!” festival is Bekim Fehmiu, renowned Albanian, Kosovar, Belgrade, Yugoslavian and global actor who is a symbol of unity and division, but also represents the possibility of joining two cultural spaces into a unified whole.

The festival will take place in several locations. Entry will be as during previous years, free of charge. 

The festival is organized by the Youth Initiative for Human Rights (Serbia), Integra (Kosovo), Civic Initiative (Serbia), with the support of the Kosovo Foundation for Open Society (KFOS), Foundation for Open Society in Serbia, Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF), The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport of the Republic of Kosovo.