SKENA UP
WRAP UP.
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It's the first time (or the second, not so sure), that SkenaUp is mentioned in this blog, so its best to write about its finale. November 27th saw the last day of the festival, and handed out awards to individuals the jury members were most impressed with. "Story of Tea" and “…the rest is silence” were the two plays that will stay here for a while, but i do not want to remember that much of the Iranian play (based on what we saw that night).
It is pleasing to see that Agon, the director for “…the rest is silence” won the price as the best play. Now, some might not agree on this, but there are always people that do not agree. The Serbian play "Story of Tea" was pretty good from my not-such-a-play-critic point of view. “…the rest is silence” was a play in which I felt (really felt) scared, at points. It was an eerie play, with two mute actors, who only screamed and cried. I especially liked the projector+actor combination, and the on-screen visual effects were done super good. As I try to rewind the play in my head, the sound of the gun-shot chills down my spine. It was a tale of deceit and suicide, where the wife betrays the man for another one, and the child is left in the middle of it. Worst of all, he knew what his mother had done. Agon (the director), involves his father in the play as well, giving him the role of the father that killed himself in the beginning of the play, and that is projected on-screen as the guy in the Wizard of Oz. Both parents commit suicide by blowing their heads off in the end. Sorry to spoil the ending, but it was such a gruesome ending.
Agon is such a talented up and coming play director, that deserved the prize.

it was not gonna be a "glorious" day from the beginning: it was freezing outside, ice-covered roads made proper walking very hard, and the construction on our newly radioactive town square had yet to finish. Academics and academic societies were beamed on tv screens as they blabbed about the importance of yester-day. not knowing what to do, we went to the cinema to see the Albanian-produced movie, "Mao Ce Dun". I don't know if it is a true story, but everything in that movie was true for Albania during the dictatorial reign of Enver Hoxha. Just from the title you could easily tell that the movie's setting is in the 80s, when communist Albania invited all the people of China people into their homes (reason: Chinese and Albanians were brothers back then. hard to imagine). The movie starts off by a woman giving birth to a son that would serve as a tool to have his father mingle with the people in the higher up (in the Government). Living next to a river, in a plastic-tent camp, with mud up to the knees, the charismatic and witty Hekuran decides to name his 9th son (from his second wife, Sulltane), as the Chinese great leader - Mao Ce Dun. As a simple nobody, dead-broke, and with nothing but raki, singing and dancing as his qualities, the Albanian communist party is delighted to hear that one of its citizens has named his son Mao Ce Dun. Even the Chinese Ambassador to Albania comes to visit him at his new apartment, which the communist party gave to him as a way to impress the visiting ambassador. It gets a lot weirder as the honest, quiet, and quite smart man twists and uses (without any intention) the benefits that the party suddenly grants him. Hekuran (Mao Ce Dung's father) sells the furniture of the apartment three times, and the stupid party members cannot do anything to him (except jail and torture their own members). The movie shows the fragility, superficiality and the big loopholes that the system created. It also showed how a man, without a single working day in his life, benefited a whole lot by just naming his son as the great Chinese leader. But as these systems work, you get all the benefits you request, then conspiracy theories about you start to circle (people at the Albanian communist party thought that Hekuran, the father of the famous boy, was conspiring against the great Albanian socialist nation and was backed up by the USofA, or Russia - the arch enemy).
As they sang and danced, the security came and took Hekuran away, with him not knowing why was he arrested, or why was he even given new clothes and house. Sulltane knew this was coming.
Then it was Creme de la Creme, for a glass of home-made wine and some good music.
"One for all, and all for one"- Hekuran used to say in the movie. He had such a Robin-Hood like figure, but he was a bum and a good-hearted guy who was really sharp, and knew how to get stuff from idiots from the Albanian Communist party.

It was a good way to spend your 28th day of November.
Today, Yugoslavia celebrates its day. Wherever she is.

SKENA UP
Theater and Movie Festival
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Day three

The annual theater and film festival "Skena Up", was supposed to start on November 17, coinciding with the Election Day. So, it was postponed for a later day. There seem to be quite interesting plays and movies, and the organizers really worked hard to continue doing this festival on a yearly basis. In the beginning, I must admit that I kind of had this feeling that this won’t last for a year or so. But it did and I’m glad. People have new places to go, and for a little while forget the smoke filled cafes that have become so ordinary. This year’s theme is dedicated to Faruk Begolli, a great actor that passed away a few months back. I wanted to go see the plays and moves from the first day so bad, but could not, but finally tonight nita and me managed to go see two plays: One was from Serbia: “The Story of Tea” (played at the ODA theatre – insert link), and the other one was from Iran: “The Last Royal Smile of the Moon” (played at the National Theater).

We were gonna see two plays at ODA Theatre, and actually we wanted to see a play that was directed by a friend of ours, but were surprised to find out that he was rescheduled at a later date.

We enjoyed the story of tea a lot (an adaptation of “The Three Sisters”), particularly the way the four actors moved and danced around, and they had great costumes. I don’t know much about acting, but you could easily tell that the three middle-aged/super-vital ladies, and the bald/Yugoslav named actor were real professionals. One of the actresses had more biceps muscles than me, and was super thin. The only male part of the play was acting in a quite feminine way as well. The performance was fantastic, as they depicted the wars/tragedies during the war in Bosnia. My eyes were watery at one moment, during a beautifully choreographed scene where a woman laid clothes and the others wept. The actors briefly explained the history of tea, and I was glad that they mentioned that green tea is good, because I drink a lot. Fresh/hot tea was handed to the public, and in the end, actors put candles on those cups of tea, making an eerie yet “in memoriam” scene for all of those who died during the wars. It was so perfectly performed and the story was implicitly stated. One more thing that’s worth mentioning is the bilingual dialogue the actors used: Most lines were in English, but then there were lines where they spoke in Serbian, which was okay. Pictures courtesy of Nita.



We rushed to get nita a pill for her headache, and then went to the other play at the National Theater. Roozbeh Nasseri’s play disappointed. The theater itself was cold /I could feel my nose freezing/, and the play was dull. It did not help that the whole act was in Iranian, which me and nita cannot understand. The music was awful – they choose songs that were shit, shit, and shit. Then the actors (more than six), did not impress. I slept for a minute or two, and then we left. I really did not want to do that, but if we stayed there a little longer, we would have slept or died from the cold.
The festival is running until the 27^th of November. So there should be lots of great movies/plays to go and see.
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TOPIC: ELECTIONS
DAYS PASSED: 4
SIDE: WINNER'S
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A couple of days passed and both people and politicians cannot stop talking about the elections. don't blame them, since what else is there anything to talk about around here /lots/? i confess that even i had a hard time trying to stay away from all that /but i voted/, but most of the time i could steer away from hard-boiled conversations where one side tries to defend what they lost, and the other beats its chest about the victory. I had no clue who is was gonna vote for, but I had a 10min walk to the polling station to make up my mind. Since my last post, election results have not changed much:

PDK is still leading by a 12% margin over LDK;
AKR is waiting in line for that invitation to form a government;
ORA has been sent to the emergency room for some finger-nail and hair implants.

But, that's how people voted. Now, a lot of people ask me who did i vote for /most of the people here tend to ask that question and they tell you who they voted for even if the question is not asked to them/. It was strange because in the beginning i did not want to vote > i only changed my mind when i figured that i could inflict more damage if i voted, than if i did not vote. This time round, people that are around me, felt more joyous, more inclined to tell that they voted PDK, and some were just still shocked about ORA's performance. This is the first time after 8 years, that people punished the big guy for not doing what they are supposed to do. Now again, a lot of people say that there is not a clear line that distinguishes the previous winners (LDK), to the new ones (PDK), and that might be true, but the previous party led the /country/ for 8 years and we were not bathing in the things they promised.

stick/
stick/
stick/

i'm kind of curious what the new government will do differently from the last one, but if they under-perform or fail to keep the promises, well, i just hope that people will not vote for them. no matter what party they belong to.

KOSOVA ELECTIONS ARE OVER&OVER.
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the results keep coming in. everyone has his or her number, but one thins is official:
The momentum has shifted, the balance has tipped!
These are the current stats that are circulating on the media frequencies and people's tongues.
PDK 37% / LDK 22% / AKR 15% / LDD 10% / AAK 9% / ORA 4%

PDK gained, and they're happy about this.
LDK lost ground, and are in ass-kicking mode towards LDD.
AKR are the surprise that is now standing on the shoulders of giants?
ORA is engaged in a fingernail-eating frenzy.

official results are yet to follow, but these preliminary results will not change for a large %.
now i can sleep.

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honesty.honey

i was in the school's fourth-floor bathroom, unzipping to perform the pre-exam urination ritual.
lights went out. my world was my toilet seat. there i stood, half an inch outside my target, like in a dream. a very weird dream. who i feel really sorry for is for the nice cleaning ladies. had to run for the exam. hate it when the lights do that!

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Hallofween bash at Olta's. sip sip and sip some more. me and nita were two goth/zombies.

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The next day. Skopje, Macedonia.

view from my triangular-shaped workplace.