Legends of Serbian TV and radio waves, these two young guys, Dusan Saponja and Dusan Cavic have for some time now managed to find the most unbelievable things in Belgrade and Serbia and bring them to the public eye by putting them on tape. Most episodes from various shows they have been creating are available on the net, so I’ll try and present some of them.
1. In the first one, D&D are trying to figure out how the tennants of this building are coping with the presence of a support pillar in their living rooms. Architectural wonders like this one are not rare in Serbia, thanks to the imaginative communist regime – the original plan for this particular building predicted a terrace, but Tito thought the terrace would be a unneccesarry luxury, so the terrace was cancelled. “But, the pillars have already been made – so what to do with them?” – “That’s easy – let’s just make them a part of the living room, no one will ever notice.”
2. In another episode, Dusan and Dusan try to investigate the hard life of a farmer in urban conditions of New Belgrade – in an cruel city environment where most of farmers have long ago given up the task of holding cattle and pigs, only the most persistent ones stand a chance. Cars, noise, smog, lack of appropriate sanitary facilities and the constant complaints about the most natural thing in the world – smell of pig shit – coming from the citizens living in surrounding buildings and apartments are a constant threat to a peacefull farmer’s life. This is how one of them survives despite being surrounded by his ancient enemy, the city:
3. Ivan Gavrilovic – he used to be Serbian number one star, back in the nineties: one of the founding fathers of Turbo Folk with his legendary song 200mph (unfortunatelly, this is not the original video, but the american turbofolk counterpart), he even dated Milosevic’s daughter for a while, and pretty much enjoyed the life of the rich and famous. Today, he is killing bugs for living. Life is really a bitch.
For short episodes such as these you just saw, it’s not really necessary to understand Serbian. However, most of the real masterpieces, award-winning shows, are subtitled. You see, besides humorous short clips, Dushan and Dushan are really the best when it comes to exploring not-so-popular subjects of the sometimes not-so-cheerful Serbian reality – in this clip they are following a day in life of a Roma boy named Zika, on the streets of Belgrade:
Maybe the most famous and the best clip tells an epic saga of man’s eternal struggle to choose the right bread: Pipachi, or The Touchers are definately one of the best short form documentaries I have ever seen, not only on Serbian TV, but generally speaking:
To look at their other videos, and there are really a lot of them, search for Marka Zvaka and Ciklotron (subtitled) on Youtube.
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Joj, Ivan Gavrilovic!
Superb post V. That video of the Roma kids is superb (but disturbing).
Oh my God. I laughed so much. I am sure you can find these kinds of people even in Sarajevo, Zagreb, and other parts of the sunny Balkans.
“Ivan Gavrilovic – he used to be Serbian number one star…he even dated Milosevic’s daughter for a while, and pretty much enjoyed the life of the rich and famous. Today, he is killing bugs for living.”
Man, excellent post!!!! Zika’s story is so sad…. The bread story is hilarious!!!! There are so many things I wouldn’t even know about if I wasn’t reading this blog!
Response to Cvijus who left message at my blog, but failed to give me his email so I can respond:
Cvijus,
I have nothing against moderate Serbs such as yourself, however, I am enemy of extremist nationalist Serbs who deny Srebrenica genocide.
The number of 2,000 Serb civilians is “as of 15 december 2005” and according to the RDC. Now, you said I am contradicting myself? Not at all, because I posted updated numbers of Serb and Bosniak victims – published by RDC (see numbers of killed) increasing the number of both Serb and Bosniak victims. When you analyze my articles, please pay attention to DATES they were posted, and there won’t be contradiction. But if there is, let me know and I will correct it, ok?
I am not enemy of Serb people and I don’t want to be one. Write back, thanks. I am leaving my email address in “E-mail” field of this response. Ok? Good luck to you.
Daniel
Dear Daniel,
I am not Cvijus, but I have a comment about your site and you attitude to Serbs.
You state above that you “have nothing against moderate Serbs…however, [you are] an enemy of extremist nationalist Serbs who deny Srebrenica genocide”.
I went to your blog to see for myself if this was borne out by your posts, and as an Irishman I was staggered to see your penultimate post – about Serbian fascism – to be a grossly distorted account of history that portrays the Serbs – who lost 200,000 to Nazi death camps – as baying fascists!
If you had mentioned the fact that Serbia had been conquered and all the “Serbian” pronouncements were actually the those of a collaborationist government, if you had mentioned the Bosnian SS Hansard Division, if you had mentioned the Croatian death camps such as Jasenovac where Serbs, Jews and Gypsies were massacred together by German and Croatian Nazis (I could go on and on) – you might have been able to claim that you at least nodded at balance and fairness. But you didn’t. This is a hatchet job on your chosen enemy Serbia (aka THE PEOPLE OF SERBIA).
By isolating and highlighting only Serbian wrongdoing, by taking statements and acts out of context and not providing back story – you are demonstrating your own mastery as a propagandist and falsifier of history.
I am sorry to say that despite your protests about “moderate Serbs” I believe on the evidence of your writing, that you at least have a deep anti-Serb bias if not full blown anti-Serb bigotry.
Have become what you hate?
P.S. can I look forward to a post about the Irish being fascists too?
let me help you with some evidence…
http://www.victims.org.uk/nazi.html
http://tinyurl.com/exdsw
Hi Viktor,
I just received your comment at my blog, but since I don’t log into the blogger from my home computer, I had to go to the library. I approved your comment.
I don’t have one single shred of bad feelings in myself against ordinary Serb people such as yourself. You seem like a nice guy. The only problem that I have is with extremists in Serbia who deny genocide and seem to call for more wars with “Knife, Wire, Srebrenica.”
There are words on my blog that I might have innapropriately used, and I acknowledge some of them were harsh (but they were aimed to extremists, not to ordinary Serbs). True, there were Serb victims too – even around Srebrenica, but the number of Serb victims is not even close to 3,000 – it’s about 500 as reliably established by the RDC/ICTY. The International Tribunal stated that the numbers of Serb victims published by Milivoje Ivanisevic (Srebrenica genocide denier) simply “do not meet reality.” Long before Bosniaks organized and started resisting attacks, about 1000 Bosniaks were already killed by Serb (para) military forces in Eastern Bosnia. So we need to keep that in mind.
There are no less than 8,000 victims of Srebenica genocide, as has been established by the ICMP’s DNA analysis (see recent Newsweek article, interview with the ICMP on my blog).
Another important note about the numbers: The estimate of 200,000+ dead in Bosnia is wrong; there were 100,000+ so killed as could have been reliably established by the RDC. So, in this example – Bosnia’s war time government estimates were wrong.
We need to stick to the objective facts (and not those propagated by Milivoje Ivanisevic) and we must keep things in perspective. We need lasting peace, economic prosperity, people of the Balkans are tired of failed politics and wars. It’s time to go forward. There must be no more wars or military confrontations in the Balkans.
Hi Daniel, I moved your comment here, so as not to go offtopic on the new post.
I agree with everything you say here, but my point was only not to let yourself generalize the entire people, which you did in that post.
Jonathan Davis – nobody asked you anything. When you start condemning Srebrenica genocide denial and extremist parts of Serbian society, only then you can talk to me. Until then, “keep blowing the wind,” I don’t let ignorant people like you waste my time.
Viktor, thanks for your comment. According to the Research and Documentation Center – in Srebrenica region – there were 8,460 Bosniak victims of Srebrenica genocide (6,565 civilians + 1,895 soldiers). Around Srebrenica there were 480 Serb victims (151 civilians + 329 soldiers). Other victims included 2 Croats and 3 Others.
This is the same research centre that demolished inacurate information about 200,000 dead in Bosnia-Herzegovina by concluding that about 100,000 people died.
Viktor, I won’t be responding any longer here, but I wish you all the best and you know my E-mail address if you have any questions or comments. As I said, you seem like a nice decent guy, and I wish you all the best,
Daniel
It should be known that Daniel’s figures include the “missing”. Even the total of the Bosnian war, said to be around 97,000 includes 16,662 missing:
Od ukupnog broja stradalih, 80.545 je ubijenih, a 16.662 osobe su nestale.
http://www.nezavisne.com/vijesti.php?vijest=11059&meni=2
And given that the Bosnian government convicted Serbs for killing Muslims who were discovered alive and well after the war and had been living in Sarajevo the whole time and worked for the army, it’s shown that Bosnian Muslims and their families will not come forward with evidence of themselves or other Muslims being alive if a Serb is being blamed for phony deaths.
The total Bosnian figure also doesn’t factor out the deaths from the Muslim-Croat war nor the Muslim-Muslim fighting of Fikret Abdic and his autonomous area against the Bosnian Muslim 5th corps.
Daniel’s Srebrenica is including alleged “missing” but Muslims of the same age and names of the “missing” are living in the U.S. and other parts of Bosnia.
One must remember how over 3,000 of the “missing” turned up on the OSCE’s 1996 voting lists.
Muslims have resorted to digging up soldiers who died back in 1993 and 1994 and taking their bodies to Potocari. They are simply going to use all their soldiers who fell during the entire war and they include the soldiers of Zepa too, which was another Muslim army base just south of Srebrenica.
Whatever the lacunae in a post provoked by a wilful misrepresentation of the Snagovo mass grave investigation, Ida’s comments explain exactly why Daniel wrote as he did. We have enough evidence of what happened at Srebenica and the organised nature and scope of the killing.
Srebrenica was the largest single atrocity perpetrated on European soil since the Second World War. Ratko Mladic, the man responsible for organising it was for years living in protection in Serbia and despite an ongoing succession of promises has still not been handed over to justice. He appears to remain a hero to large sections of Serbian public opinion.
There were Serbs who fought the forces of darkness at the time and others since who have acknowledged what happened and worked hard to repair the damage. But they’re still widely maligned and threatened. While Mladic remains at liberty and so many voices are routinely raised in denial, justification and rationalisation the blood stays fresh on the carpet.
Ida mentions Zepa. What happened to Avdo Palic then, and where is his body? People in positions of authority clearly know but refuse to say. Those people ensure that the wounds stay open, and so do their mouthpieces. If Daniel writes intemperately in his anger it’s not hard to understand why when you bother to read his posts.
Daniel,
I wholeheartedly condemn and denounce the Srebrenica massacre, Serbian extremists AND anti-Serb extremists like yourself.
I am glad it is the last we will be seeing of you here.
You lighten the load of Serbian extremists and make their job easier against moderates like me precisely because of the sort your distortions and lies that you peddle and they seize on.
Until the world starts being fair and balanced about what really happened (and happens) here in the Balkans, extremists on all sides will thrive.
If you truly want to fight Serbian extremism, then be fair and honest. Stop trying to perpetuate the myth of true (Serbian) evil. Find out about how things like Srebrenica happen – read The Lucifer Effect (http://www.lucifereffect.com). Stop being an anti-Serb propaganda mouthpiece. Learn about proper historiography.
This country will only fully come to terms with the wrongs committed in its name when the wrongs committed against it have been acknowledged. You are asking people who are the victims of illegal bombing, constant bullying and the forcible seizure of their heartland to be gracious and charitable and “own up” to crimes like Srebrenica – committed in another country by people not under their command whilst ruled by a dictator!
The people of Serbia will only “own up” top the acts of the Bosnian Serb Army when their collective culpability is established and crimes against them are acknowledged.
When Operation Strom is no longer celebrated as a national holiday , when the massacres against Serbs are also internationally known, when the NATO bombing of Serbia is widely recognized as the crime it was, when Serb victims have equal status as other groups and when the Kosovo situation is resolved fairly – THEN you can ask this battered, humiliated and bullied country to fully internalize the horror of Srebrenica.
After all, they state of Serbia has ALREADY acknowledged its wrongs in the Bosnian War and apologized to the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The rest of the healing process is contingent upon belated justice for Serbs and Serbia.
This thread has gone completely off topic. I hope you don’t mind Viktor.
It seems to me that emotion is clouding most peoples judgement still (not surprising). Daniel reads lies in the Serbian media which angers him and he uses intemperate language. Jonathan replies in equally intemperate and emotional fashion. And we don’t get anywhere.
Most people who post here are reasonable people (except Ida I’m afraid) and should be able to reach some kind of consensus. We should start by sticking to facts and evidence. One sided selective history is not helpful because it is misleading. Nor is the pretence that the Bosnian Serb army was not dependent on, and shared war aims with, the govt in Belgrade. That is also misleading.
In particular, what is true is that which the evidence points towards. The truth should not need a shopping list of demands to be met before it is acknowledged. Nor should collective guilt be brought into it.
Oh, and many thanks for the documentary clips Viktor. And keep up the excellent blog.
6DVVQ
“Ida mentions Zepa. What happened to Avdo Palic then, and where is his body?”
He was not a civilian but a Bosnian Muslim General – a real hard, tough-looking guy – how many Serbs did he torture and slaughter? I have not a clue what happened to him, but there are plenty of Serb civilians who disappeared and the international community doesn’t give a damn about them – even when they are kidnapped under their noses, as in Kosovo.
“If Daniel writes intemperately in his anger it’s not hard to understand why when you bother to read his posts.”
I don’t bother to read his blog. I don’t like him. But he comes in and derails this nice topic with his rabid zealotry, bias and hatred for Serbs. It’s no wonder you are such a fan of his – well read to your heart’s content. I don’t bother you or interfere with Daniel’s shreiking there. But he is the one who contaminated this thread and hoplefully he’ll keep his word and not post anymore on here – though the Bosniaks aren’t known for keeping their word.
Ever hear of Bosnian Muslim massacre of unarmed Yugoslav soldiers who were withdrawing from Tuzla, by agreement, at the beginning of the Bosnian war. The Bosnian Muslim snipers killed the drivers of the convoys then picked off the soldiers and burned the vehicles – hundreds were killed and many still missing – since 1992. The Bosnian Muslims did a similar thing in Sarajevo when soldiers were WITHDRAWING from their barracks. The UN did nothing to stop the systematic one-sided slaughter of Serbs/Yugoslav by Bosnian Muslims.
The Bosnian Muslims broke their word on that agreement which had been brokered by the UN and shot those who were not shooting at them, and they also took POWs, tortured and killed them. Those missing, as in Tuzla, from more than 3 years before the “fall” (I say evacuation) of Srebrenica haven’t all been accounted for or bodies returned.
The Bosnian Muslims set the tone at the very beginning of the war that they would kill POWs. Who are they to whine if they did get a taste of their own medicine.
Returning to the original topic the story about the disturbed little Roma street kid was as Sasha said very sad – sympathetically but at the same time objectively treated. In any big city the streetwise children of the marginalised have a precarious hold on life.
For me the most chilling person was the kid with the knife bragging that he could kill one of the Dusans. The son of policeman and court clerk apparently, on the streets with a 9inch blade knowing his age protects him from serious consequences. A young psychopath or a foolish child who probably got the thrashing of his life when his cop dad saw that piece?
“For me the most chilling person was the kid with the knife bragging that he could kill one of the Dusans.”
Not that it makes much difference, but he wasn’t delivering that statement (“You know, I could kill you without being held responsible”) to one of the Dušans, but to another kid who was offcamera.
I don’t really think his dad is a cop or that his mom was a court clerk – it was more bragging than telling the truth. But it is disturbing nevertheless.
As for Zika, I haven’t seen him in the streets of Belgrade in the last two years – before that, he was a “regular” in some clubs and cafes. I’m afraid that something might have happened to him.