"When a man reaches my age, few things make him happy. Life begins to resemble what the great emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius said: 'Life is a terrifying dream in which death smiles at us every day, and we, the powerless, can only do is to smile back'. For old people, one of the most terrible words is the word - future. People in old age, whether they want it or not, are always in a continuous dialogue with death. I often, on Kalemegdan, sit in front of the bronze bust of my great friend, and the great poet Stevan Raičković, and talk to him about death". ("Politics" 2015)
These are the words of the writer and screenwriter Branimir Šćepanović (1937), who died on Monday in the Home for the Elderly in Bežanija, Belgrade.
The news about Šćepanović's death was announced on social networks by writer and publisher Zoran Živković.
Šćepanović was born in 1937 in Podgorica, and among his best-known works is the novel "Usta puna zemlje", published in 10 editions in Serbian and in 27 foreign editions, and it was translated into all major world languages, while it had as many as 23 editions in French. .
Clubs of fans of this novel were founded in Switzerland. In the largest French newspaper of the time, critics declared this book "a unique poem in world literature".
Nikola Milošević claimed that "Mouth full of earth" can only be compared with the prose of Miloš Crnjanski and pointed to the artistic component of the book, comparing certain scenes with the paintings of Dali and Boš.
Trying to explain the popularity of the novel "Usta puna zemlje", Šćepanović said that it is a universal story about human loneliness and suffering.
"A large number of studies were written in France, they called my novel the Fifth Gospel. The great hatred of the hounds, for which there is no reason, who with ferocity try to catch and destroy an innocent man, seemed to many like the fate of Jesus Christ", Šćepanović said.
The novella "The Death of Mr. Goluža" was included in several world anthologies, and in 2008, Nolita published Selected Works of Branimir Šćepanović.
Šćepanović's short stories were printed as books in French, Greek, Hungarian, Slovenian and Bulgarian, and individually - in newspapers and magazines, and in many other languages.
Eighteen anthologies in our country and abroad are included.
Šćepanović published three novels: "Usta puna zemlje", "Sramno leto" and "Iskupjeplje", a collection of short stories "The Death of Mr. Goluža" and "Before the Truth", and six feature films were made based on his screenplays. He also won two Golden Arenas for the film script at the festival in Pula (1963 and 1973).
"Večernje Novosti" broadcast on its portal the last interview that Šćepanović gave to that newspaper, when he warned that vulgarity, entertainment and superficiality triumph over marginalized culture.
"Culture, literature and serious art are marginalized, because vulgarity, variety and superficiality triumph. I am no longer at an age when I can look forward to any promotions and celebrations. At my age, which are serious years, everything becomes less interesting and less significant, little can make a person happy.
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