(Belgrade, Serbia, 1996)
Graduated in Dramaturgy from Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. Youngest winner of the Sterija’s Award for Best Dramatic Text, for the drama Lullaby For Aleksija Rajčić, which focuses thematically on gender equality and women’s rights through deconstruction of Serbian folklore. One of the creators of the “Pointless Films” creative group, and a regular dramaturg of Angažman fest, the festival of socially engaged theatre for youth. Works as a playwright, screenwriter and freelance dramaturg. Currently stationed in Zagreb for his MA studies.
It’s not July anymore
On an island (and on the way to an island), under the relentless, summer sun, HE (20) and SHE (20), after a long separation, try to evoke former romantic love – if it ever even existed. In the environment of a summer film festival where they work as volunteers, the main characters of the drama try to find a common language in a sea of personal associations, to find empathy in general apathy, and to overcome mutual alienation despite personal fears and frustrations. In a constant clinch, He and She go through nine scenes together, that is, nine situations – travel (by land and air), rendezvous on a ship, pointless manual work in the basement of a local elementary school, jealous quarrel on the beach, fight with a sunstroke on the docks, opening of the festival, going to the ambulance clinic and finally the last meeting, in which they both reach the great and expected climax that every love story must have, even the saddest one. Which this one certainly isn’t.
Lullaby for Aleksija Rajčić
Lullaby is positioned in a historical period that is not specified (although it is hinted at), in a village in the Šumadija region in Serbia. This uncertainty is not accidental, because the topic that the play deals with – the problem of family violence against and their social rights- is unfortunately still a burning issue. Additionally, the play also tackles the issue of female prisoners and their treatment in society. The plot of the play follows a girl, Aleksija Rajčić, whose suffering of violence and extreme life conditions push her towards committing a crime – the murder of her husband, leading to her being imprisoned for life, which only completes her complete exclusion from society. The play is based on the true stories and testimonies of prisoners from the women’s ward of the Požarevac Penitentiary, dating from the end of the 19th century. The text is written in the form of a verse, structured in such a way as to evoke associations with oral heritage and folklore, which are deconstructed, reshaped or parodied through the text, thus re-examining layers and meanings of the historical-cultural heritage.
