On the occasion of the Remembrance Day of Jadovno 1941, the Serb National Council (SNV), in co-production with RadioTeatar, organised a memorial public contest “Radiofonton 1941” for a dramatic text on the theme of Zagreb in the Spring of 1941. The jury consisting of Snježana Banović, Pavlica Bajsić Brazzoduro, Dražen Krešić, and Aneta Vladimirov selected three texts in a coded contest.
The Department of Culture of the Serb National Council (SNV), in cooperation with RadioTeatar, launched the commemorative public contest “Radiofonton 1941” on the occasion of the Jadovno 1941 Remembrance Day for a radio drama text on the topic: “Zagreb in the Spring of 1941.” The intention of the organizers was to provide an opportunity for creativity with the aim of artistic and mediatic refinement of learning about and imagining history, especially that which has been neglected or even very consciously revised. Sound was chosen as the dominant medium for the purpose of an innovative artistic exploration of these historical circumstances. The theme of the contest opened up the forgotten time as well as the forgotten or lost localities of Zagreb, where in the Spring of 1941 the fight against the forthcoming evil and its increasingly clear dangers took place. In all of this, the ordinary man remained invisible, both at that time and in memories. The submitted works responded to this memorial-artistic challenge in the best possible way, and the jury consisting of Snježana Banović, Pavlica Bajsić, Dražen Krešić, and Aneta Vladimirov chose the first three texts: “Nema Putne” (lit. “No One for the Road”) by the author Antoni Buljan, “Ljudi, naselja, tjelesa” (lit. “People, Settlements, Bodies”) by the author Nataša Antulov, and “Valovi iz kupaonice braće Engl” (lit. “Waves from the Engl Brothers’ Bathroom”) by the author Dorotea Šušak. The cast was as follows: Sinek – Nikola Nedić, Marija – Nika Barišić, the Cellist – Stanislav Kovačić.
Artists, Witnesses, Engineers
On June 23, 2022, a radiophonic performance of the text “Nema putne” by Antoni Buljan, who won the “Radiofonton 1941” contest, was held in the packed hall of the Club of Electrical Engineering Students (KSET) in Zagreb. The performance was created in collaboration with the Serb National Council (SNV) and RadioTeatar, it was directed by Dražen Krešić and performed by actors Nikola Nedić and Nika Barišić with musical accompaniment by Stanislav Kovačić on the cello. The intention of the contest, which was initiated by the Department of Culture at the SNV, was to provide an opportunity for creativity with the aim of artistic and mediatic refinement of learning about and imagining history, especially that which has been neglected or even very consciously revised.
– About a dozen applications were submitted to the literary contest. Out of those, the jury chose as the best the following texts: “Valovi iz kupaonice braće Engl” (lit. “Waves from the Engl Brothers’ Bathroom”) by Dorotea Šušak, “Ljudi, naselja, tjelesa” (lit. “People, Settlements, Bodies”) by Nataša Antulov and “Nema putne” (lit. “No One for the Road”) by Antoni Buljan – Aneta Vladimirov, the project producer, told us.
We also spoke with the author of the winning work.
– I regularly read the Novosti weekly and that is how I found out about the literary contest. One of the reasons for applying is that I have a house on the coast at the foot of the Velebit Mountain and that I know Velebit through stories that have nothing to do with what actually happened in the camps and pits around there. I found out about Jadovno because I have family members on my wife’s side who met their end there. Although I am a member of the majority in Croatia, completely unthreatened in a sort of personal comfort, I felt in various ways 1991 as a reflection of 1941. By chance, I did not end up serving in the army, but I lived through a time of fun, booze, music, and girls. All of this changed suddenly in 1991, so there are some autobiographical details in the text – the author Antoni Buljan told us. Interestingly enough, he has never written radio dramas before.
– I am completely unexperienced when it comes to such things and this is my first such text, but I used to run a blog and I write technical texts as I am an engineer by vocation and I deal with telecommunications – says Buljan, who would be glad if his play would be available to the general public. (By: N. Jovanović).
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