This image of Meliha Varešanović, captured by British photographer Tom Stoddart, went all around the world. It has become iconic – a classic of reportage. Yet back in 1994, while people overseas were opening their morning newspapers and talking about the beautiful women in the picture, Meliha was just thinking about how to survive another day.
Both documentary and poetic, the new play, ‘‘The Lullaby for Mladenka,’’ takes crimes against Croatian civilians from the village of Grabovica in September 1993 as its subject. Members of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) killed 33 Croatian civilians, the oldest of whom was 87 years old and the youngest four. Play’s author is Sead Đulić, and it’s performed by the Mostar Youth Theater (eMTeeM).
A road trip story only makes sense when the travelers, at least mistakenly, have a goal and believe that arriving at their destination will solve all problems and end all the hassles of the trip. There is no such goal in Bosnia; all roads are seemingly equally bumpy and pointless, leading you around in circles even when you seem to be making progress. Driving through Bosnia is different: “a twisted cosmic worm that does not lead to an external and real destination but to the gloomy, barely traversed depths of your own being.” These are Lana Bastašić’s words, whose latest novel is called „Uhvati zeca.“
Project Ele Mostar was intended not only as a contribution to reconciliation in Mostar, but as an example of reconciliation to the whole country. The project was launched in 2019 with the idea to bring Bosniak and Croat university students at Dzemal Bijedic University and the University of Mostar closer together by showcasing Spanish culture through workshops, courses, and films. Projects like this are very important because they are often starting points for political discussions and problem-solving in BiH.