UNMIK ON AIR

The longest winter

By Blagoje Grujic

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UNMIK’s Office for Missing Persons and Forensics – OMPF - recently launched a Project of Remembrance, in order to help the families of missing persons and offer them an opportunity to speak openly about the problems they are faced with.

The primary aim of the Office is to facilitate discovering the truth about the faith of missing persons and identification of discovered mortal remains.

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Six years after the conflict in Kosovo ended there are still more then 3.000 missing persons registered, from different ethnic communities. The OMPF in cooperation with the Center for Children’s Theater Development recently presented a drama titled “The longest winter”, which deals with the issue of missing persons from the viewpoint of the families that live through tremendous pain and hope that one day the truth will be revealed.

The sponsor of this project is the Norwegian Embassy in Belgrade. The director of the play is Jonathan Chadvik of the Az Theater from London, also a guest director at the London Academy for music and Dramatic Arts.

Andrew Zadel from OMPF came to Kosovo to coordinate the Memory Project.

CUT – We teamed up with the local organization called “Center for children theater development”. They are experts at creating social relevant dramas, perform them at schools and have this kind of workshops. We are working with that group, of Albanian ethnicity, and because we wanted a multiethnic perspective we also found a Serb living in Caglavica who has a background in scriptwriting. We have four scriptwriters myself included and we try to take elements from what we have learned in schools about kids’ experiences of missing

The piece is about a family whose father went missing during the conflict in Kosovo. The drama shows the mother’s feelings and her refusal to accept the truth, and her daughter who cannot wait anymore for an answer.

CUT: Natural sound from the play:

Girl to mum: “he loved us so much! If he is alive he would be now here, with us!

When the daughter goes out to get firewood, she meets a guy whose father went missing too. But unlike her, the boy is strong in his belief that his father is still alive and that he is going to come back.

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Touched by her hopelessness, the boy writes a letter to the girl’s family in which he presents himself as a father who is on his way back home.

CUT: Natural sound from the play:

Mother reading a paragraph

Taking advantage of this new optimism in the family a swindler appears at the house demanding money in exchange for information about their missing father.

Confused and overwhelmed by feelings of hope and fear the girl is keen to get a definite answer. She persuades the boy to visit with her the Office for Missing Persons. However both find themselves disappointed as the girl goes back home without any answer, while the guy realizes his father is dead.

CUT: Natural sound from the play…

The boy and the girl’s reaction on the news they get

Two groups of actors perform the play simultaneously, one group in Serbian and the other in Albanian language. The Serb group consists of students from the theatre academy of Zvecan. They already played the drama at the Cultural House in Gracanica, while the premier of the Albanian group is planned for the end of May at Pristina’s National Theater.

Milena Jaksic is a third year student and plays the role of ‘The Girl’.

CUT – We had limited time to prepare, but it turned out to be a great piece. Excellent having in mind the time available for preparations.I believe that the critics are positive and we feel good....

The play will be on stage in various secondary schools over the next two months, till the end of this school year. It is expected to facilitate open debates among high school pupils about different aspects surrounding this sensitive issue and should be an introduction for public debate regarding the issue of missing persons in Kosovo.

Milena Jaksic believes that this is the right way to make the issue of missing persons more present in public.

CUT – I think it’ll work out well because the script is written to target younger audience, and I’m sure they would feel and understand the massage of this true-facts-made drama.

The coordinator of the Memory Project, Andrew Zadel believes that through this project those who suffer the most, the families of missing persons, would be in a position to say their own word about the issue.

CUT - So it is given them a chance to speak for themselves and be asked what their opinions are; we have already done some workshops in schools about the issue; and many kids were surprised, they said it is really amazing; someone wants to know what we have to say for a change; and we think that there is a real need for young people top speak out about this kind of issue.

The Memory Project has allocated funds for this school year, until the end of June. But the organizers hope to find sponsors to support the project also in the next school year.

That was all for today, thanks for listening and stay tuned.