UN RADIO IN KOSOVO

INTERVIEW – ENVER PETROVCI

By Zoran CULAFIC

Hello and welcome ... you are listening to UN Radio in Kosovo

Enver Petrovci, a prominent Yugoslav film and theater actor, graduated at Film and Theater Academy in Belgrade, was living in Belgrade before the war in Kosovo started. Today in Pristina Petrovci remembers all his friends throughout former Yugoslavia and hopes to establish a Theater House in Pristina.

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In an interview with UN Radio in Kosovo Enver Petrovci talks about former Yugoslavia and the process all its former nations are now engaged in trying to find their own identities and establish themselves as mature and democratic societies.

Six years have past since the war in Kosovo, today Enver Petrovci has very mixed and confused feelings, particularly when the relations between Serbs and Albanians are concerned.

PETROVCI –The question is delicate, particularly in these times. How do I feel, … probably confused, fogy-like, probably without the correct answer. Whatever I tell you, it seems that I’m not going to tell the truth …not because I’d like to hide something, rather because my emotions are mixed and fogy-like … unclear. Probably I’m not alone to feel like that, probably many people feel like that. Do not forget that I have invested, as many others did, all my energy into one state that was called as it was called, that had her own system, that had a future … and suddenly all of that disappeared, and that energy suddenly is not needed anymore. Officially not needed any more. Suddenly I’m not needed anymore as an actor. And now I feel as in a new world, different world, where I have to invest a different energy, and I’m a bit too old for that, a bit tired of that.

Q – You have graduated on Academy in Belgrade, you have spent time acting in Belgrade, many friends you have in Belgrade and throughout former Yugoslavia, how do you see now that such hatred exists between Serbs and Albanians, how do you explain that … why it happened ?

PETROVCI– The answer on that question, I’m sure, needs longer answer than we have time in this program … EDIT TO - I have many friends from Maribor (in Slovenia) down to Bitola (in Macedonia). And I really mean it. The energy that I have mentioned before, I have invested in such people EDIT TO The life thought me that you have to earn your own freedom … and I think that freedom today you can earn only through work. I have invested too much efforts, work ... and that’s why I feel free. EDIT TO track 12 – while I cannot get a general freedom, as a man, as an actor in society that does not respects the art, and I know it is not respected here, I know that you can earn you personal, individual freedom only through work. And if you work, everyone would respect your freedom, even a jealous wife.

Q – If you could choose, would you put yourself in position of today’s young generation, having in mind all nice days you have had in your youth, in terms of perspective for the future and overall environment today?

PETROVCI– No, I’d not do it never … never ... I simply feel sorrow for them. Sorrow, because they live through an ugly times, let them forgive me because of saying this, I’d not like they to say now – this old Enver is talking some rubbish … But, really, I’m not telling you this from the position and psychology of my generation, I see how they live and what they live through and I feel sorrow for them, because they would never have a feeling of what we had lived through … not a bit, and what my father have lived through … What they live today through are just an empty things, it’s a machine … no emotions, I’d like, in the name of God, to be wrong, but I think like that.

Q – And from that perspective, how do you see the future of this entire region, not only Kosovo,

PETROVCI– It is a natural thing … all of this will vanish one day, probably we will see some more destruction, some more chopping ... But than people would realize that we cannot live like that, and they would find their own interest to get together again. But, not by the decree, as it was before, but because they would realize by themselves that one cannot live alone and separated … they would get together again because of the natural need.

Q – Do you think it’s sad that politicians here do not work more seriously on real reconciliation between people. It seems that ordinary people would very easily find a way to establish a correct neighboring relations, but politicians make it sometimes more difficult.

PETROVCI– They the politicians) do not have a time, they look after they own interests, majority of them are not representing the needs of the people, but rather their own personal interests. That’s something even a small kids knows. Probably all of us are going through an initial period and we have to overcome these guys, people have to understand them and stop voting for them, because they are not politicians who think a good for us, rather they are here because of their own personal interests, to get rich, to live on high level, most of them, I’m not saying all of them. Who knows what are their real reasons to behave like that, but the time and place gave them an opportunity to do it. So, I do not consider them as serious politicians. People are going to understand that, but usually it happens in this region too late.

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PETROVCI– So, at the end they would understand all of that. And tomorrow we are going to be ashamed of some people that we are very laud and very proud of them today, as the others in the region were ashamed too before us. And all those our heroes and those who we consider as doing very good things for this or that region, for this or that community, probably we are going to be ashamed of them, not all of them, but the majority … but, again, it is a process that we have to go through. I hope that after the sixth elections in this region, the democracy is going to start.

Q- you mean, in some 20 years or so …?

PETROVCI - it’s six election circles … is it 20 or 15 or 10 years, or even 25 … that’s not relevant, but we have to pass six times through elections to start the democracy … just to start … this is not a democracy.

Q – When you compare the world of art, theater and literature, in which you live, with this outside world of politics, what is your impression?

PETROVCI – I’m trying to keep my world somehow clean … not to make big sins … the only thing every morning is to pray God to keep me conscious … to be aware when I’m doing good and when I’m doing bad. Not to believe when I do something bad that I’m doing something good. Every morning I pray the God to keep me aware of that not to name evil good, and vice versa, not to name good evil.

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PETROVCI – I’m trying not to nourish hatred in my mind … it is very hard indeed, in this time and this area not to nourish hatred against someone, not even against those who committed some evil to you, and when I say it I think on personal basis too, but I’m trying to stay normal and not to hate anyone, because I know, and it is according to Koran, and Bible and all the smart books that hatred is always returning to you, as a catastrophe … at the end, it kills those who nourish hatred in themselves.

And with this we end today’s program. Our guest was prominent Kosovo actor Enver Petrovci, thanks for listening us and stay tuned …