Goran Markovic: dissatisfaction is great, Sherpas are no longer enough – Culture

“Withdrawing money from culture, and especially from cinematography, which does not exist without state aid, is tantamount to crime. There is nothing to add here,” says esteemed director Goran Markovic in an interview for Danas.

He affirms this on the occasion of the decision of the Serbian Government to take 20 percent of the previously planned funds to the Ministry of Culture and Information, and therefore to the Serbian Film Center, rebalancing the budget due to the repair of the consequences of the coronavirus. When asked how he sees the conflict between Jelena Trivan, the chair of the FCS Board of Directors, and the Minister of Culture and Information, Vladan Vukosavljevic for Culture, which emerged on that occasion, he replied that the Ministry of Culture is guilty of at least he didn’t try to do something.

“The Minister of Culture could, for example, threaten to burn in Nikola Pasic Square if culture is deprived of the right to oxygen. I did not hear a single tone from him, much less a scream. As for the protector of the workers of film in the character of Jelena Trivan, I have two questions: first, what qualifications does this woman have to be the president of the board of directors of the Film Center, except that she got a bad card in the distribution of functions of the party and, second How can she, who in her political life made such a moral leap and flew recklessly from one herd to another, can represent the interests of the artist? “Artistic activity, by definition, does not imply knowledge of the profession and high moral standards of all participants? “Markovic points out.

* Although the money was taken from the culture, independent artists were the last to receive state aid. How do you look at it? Especially considering that many actors are again ignored, because they don’t have the status of independent artists, even though they play in state theaters …

– When, in the midst of the German bombardment of London, a proposal appeared in the British Parliament to transfer money from culture for defense needs, Winston Churchill asked: “And what are we going to defend then?” This well-known anecdote illustrates the difference between the government’s civilized and non-civilized attitude towards culture. For me, taking the bread away from the actors, the theater program, and the opportunity for the cinematographer to work is the behavior of a wild horde in a store that sells porcelain. Why dishes with filigree decorations and silverware when we can eat with our hands? What will glass glasses do for us when it is better to drink from a bottle?

* What does this attitude towards culture and cultural workers tell us? Are artists punished for their attitudes?

– Artists represent an unnecessary expense for this government, which also has possible dangerous consequences. She thinks like this: “What will culture or art do for us when we come to power through that part of the electorate that is disgusted by these things?” We simply complicate things unnecessarily. You never know what these artists can think and say. Better not to have them. Or, if we already have to give them some money, that they at least do it for our promotion, anyway we separate it from what is ours. Well, make money. “I guess that’s what the policeman Vesić and others like him think.

* His film “Variola vera” gave an image of the disease of Yugoslav society. In that sense, what did the crown reveal to us about modern Serbia?

– And this epidemic has opened a naked image of the country in which we live. A set of amateurs and liars, that is what governs this country. Let me not repeat the well-known details about the cover-up of the beginning of the epidemic due to the SNS electoral list or the lies about the acquisition and distribution of sanitary devices on which the lives of many people depended. And not to list everything that has been discovered in recent years, all those scandals that were impossible to hide. Not to mention the incomprehensible lies with which the tyrant showers us every day, from all the television channels and pornographic media. Everything is stripped now. If there’s anything useful in this epidemic, it’s the fact that it’s leaking in all directions on the bottom deck.

* Many thought that the postcovid world would be different, and these days we are seeing the same debates between the government and the opposition, protests against migrants, conflicts over events in Montenegro and the like, as two months ago. Do you think that nothing has really changed?

– No, some things are worse. The right is flourishing, the left is nowhere to be found. This is a consequence of the false representation of the Socialist Party as a supposedly leftist party. It is, as far as I know, a gathering of millionaires who have made a good profit by participating in government since the beginning of this soap opera called multi-party politics in Serbia. There is no social commitment there. They only simulate concern for the “working man.” Have you ever seen that person live? Like all the time, its president simulates the interest in joining the European Union, and everything seems to prevent us from being accepted there. Because it will dry up the pond where he is one of the main crocodiles.

* At one point, with “sherparanje”, a rebellion began to be felt. On that occasion, you said that during those few minutes you felt as if you were not in the camp. What happened to that need for freedom at the time the state of emergency was lifted?

– Dissatisfaction is great, it has overwhelmed many. Sherpas are no longer enough.

* How do you see current events in and around the Assembly?

– The assembly reminds me of an elite side room. I say “remember” because I have never been to the Assembly, I only know it through television broadcasts. Therefore, looking at the composition of the deputies and their behavior, it irresistibly reminds me of a large, clogged toilet.

* Do you see a solution in the boycott of the elections? Will you go to the polls and vote?

– I do not belong to any movement that is in favor or against the elections. I will not go to the polls because I do not want to give legitimacy to a fraud previously agreed in that way. The whole machinery of power seems to me to be a group of matchmakers trying to lure the naive and steal them. Well I know how matchmakers work and I won’t get hooked. Let the gullible be robbed.

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