"The Man Who Couldn't Be Silent" N. Slijepčević won the Palme d'Or for short film at Cannes. Although the film is an international co-production, Montenegro is not among the countries that supported this film. Why is it bad or shameful?
Above all, the award in Cannes speaks of artistic reasons - because the film was recognized as valuable and awarded at the most famous festival. But, not only the so-called artistic reasons in question. Montenegro was part of it then Milosevic state and Milosevic's war. It also had the shameful mark of a similar crime - I'm talking about deportations, when the unfortunates who escaped from here were returned to prison of Karadzic criminals.
Nevertheless, some smart people thought that today, more than thirty years after this terrible crime, Montenegro should pretend that it is "not from here", that this is a story that has nothing to do with us.
This could be a good example of why such events demand remembrance, and why recently, on the occasion of the genocide in Srebrenica, the UN resolution emphasized the moment of remembrance. With such a culture of memory, it probably could not happen that CG failed the exam like this.
Here, the culture of forgetting is much more present and much more appreciated. And it can bring a lot more to a person.
Great text Boris Dežulović from 2014 served as a template. That text is one of the convincing proofs that newspaper writing makes sense even today...
I remember then, in what was then Podgorica, as soon as we read the scant news about the kidnapping from the train, we all knew very well what had happened. And what outcome follows. It's an obscure genre and too predictable.
And of course I remember that one name, the only one that didn't sound like a Muslim name. Tomo Buzov. Some said he was Bulgarian, some said he was Croatian, but it was clear that, in some way, he had clearly declared himself. Not nationally, but morally. And he paid for it with his head.
Unfortunately, the Montenegrin government, for one reason or another, did not prevent such events. However, it is not difficult to figure out the real reasons - that CG agreed with all the abominations that were done. Montenegro of the single DPS (Bulatovic-Djukanovic) was made based on that agreement.
I can't resist telling you something else...
A few years after the abduction in Štrpci, I went to Belgrade to cover a guest appearance for Monitor Đerđe Konrad. Return immediately, by business train. In the compartment, I meet two people from Podgorica, one I know, my generation (RP) and the other a little younger (MN). At some point, a relatively young priest, no more than five or six years older than us, tall and thin, appeared and sat in our compartment.
And the story started, like on a train...
To pass the graduation exam in World Literature, you had to know the Bible pretty damn well. So there was material for an interesting, even atypical story. This priest showed both willingness and curiosity to talk with one "non-baptized" (I said that I was not baptized), and the story was interesting to the others as well. I'm sure that conversation was much more normal than the time it was held.
Somewhere around the halfway point, there was a pleasant atmosphere in the compartment, we came across the station "Štrpci" where the business train did not stop. Nevertheless, I pointed to the board with the inscription "Stupes", and said to the priest: "I have to ask you something." I wanted to ask him only one question, and hear only one possible answer. He would also pass the exam with me. "If someone had stopped this train now, in Štrpci, and some people had entered to authenticate and take the passengers out, is that the case that you would not allow them to take one of us out?" I was sure that he would find a form in which he would agree with what I said.
However, the priest said: "Don't do it like that, we don't know who and who led out..." I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "Do you think the victims brought out the executioners?" I asked.
That's how I met the current Metropolitan of the Serbian Orthodox Church of Cetinje Joanikia. Perfect. Well, one sentence was enough...
Bonus video:
