Mirjana Karanović has acted in many great film and theater productions, and her acting and social involvement does not need to be specially introduced. Although in the rhythm and conditions of the pandemic and epidemiological measures, the previous period was quite fruitful for her. Recently, she was also a guest in Montenegro, at the Actor's Festival with the play "MIRA" under the direction Andras Urban, and a week later the play "The Reader", interpreted and directed Boris Liješević, earned thunderous applause, both on the big stage of KIC "Budo Tomović" and in the Nikšić Theater.
In an interview with "Vijesti", he points out that he does not divide people, including the audience, in relation to the place and/or territorial characteristics, but he does not hide his enthusiasm for the men and women of Nikšić who, he says, did not just follow what was happening on the stage , already had the need and freedom to talk about it later.
In addition to the aforementioned plays, the following stand out: the latest "Stone" directed by Patrik Lazić and the monodrama "Petrija's Wreath", which is particularly significant, because Karanović returns to the role of Petria after portraying her in the famous film four decades ago Srđan Karanović. She is followed by the series "Family" by the screenwriter and director Bojan Vuletić, in which he plays Mirjana Marković during the family's last three days Slobodan Milosevic, but also the comedy "Advokado", and the film and series "Toma"... Director of the film "Dara from Jasenovac", Predrag Antonijevic, announced that he is filming a series that will be set 50 years after the Second World War, in which Mirjana Karanović will play the older Dara. A few days ago, news arrived that her film "Mother Mara", among other minority Montenegrin co-productions, received the support of the Eurimages Board of Directors...
However, Karanović does not reveal much about future projects, but in an interview with "Vijesti" he talks about the great play "The Reader" based on a novel by a German writer and lawyer. Bernard Schlink, and opens up a series of topics that are still important today, from education and (il)literacy, human shame and conscience, to love, trauma and guilt, collective or individual...
The Montenegrin audience always welcomes you with enthusiasm, as was the case at the "Beo art" show and previously at the International Festival of Actors in Nikšić. The audience had the opportunity to (again) watch the play "The Reader" directed by Boris Liješević. What are your impressions after the guest appearance and how important is this kind of theatrical/artistic cooperation and exchange?
First of all, such guest appearances are very rare today. Simply, for serious guest appearances, for guest performances that are not just stalls, serious financial resources and the support of the ministries of culture are needed. I'm always happy when I perform a serious and demanding show anywhere, whether it's in my country, and especially when it's a guest performance in another country, which I perceive as a significant achievement. Today, the circumstances are such that I cannot help but look at it as something exceptional and special. Due to the circumstances, in a very short space of time I was a guest in Montenegro twice, with a very important and serious play such as "The Reader", and a few days before that I was in Nikšić with the play "MIRA" by the Bitef tetra. My impressions from the previous visit are exceptional. I am really delighted, not only by the applause, because applause can sometimes be deceiving. I was completely blown away by how people in Nikšić talked about our play at that round table and what kind of discussion we had. I realized that we actually had an audience that not only followed what we did on stage with interest, but also had something to think about during the performance, and later shared those thoughts with us.
Based on your previous experience, what would you say - what is the Montenegrin theater audience like? We have only recently had the opportunity and honor to enjoy a more extensive repertoire, festivals and guest productions, as well as a revitalized domestic production.
I have absolutely no relation to dividing the audience into Serbian, Montenegrin, Croatian, Belgrade, Kragujevac, Nikšić, Sarajevo or any other. I think that the whole region of the former Yugoslavia, where we lived for a long time, and I don't mean only the period of the state of Yugoslavia, but also the period before that, means that we are connected by fate. Culturally and mentally we have very similar structures. And the audience, I can't say that it is special or different, that people are different, those who come to the theater in any part of our Balkans. It seems to me, based on the experience of playing and guesting in other parts of the world, that the audience, more or less, communicates with the emotions that the actors give from the stage and direct them to them. It is this communication that has nothing to do with religion or nation.
How important is theater for the maturation and progress of a society, but also of an individual, citizen or artist? What is the power of theater today, if we see that it survives and communicates with its audience despite all the technological (r)evolutions and possibilities?
I think that theater is one of the things that are important for spiritual progress or spiritual well-being, or, if you will, for the spiritual survival of a nation. Theater is important because there is an authentic, live contact between the audience and the people on stage, at least for me. It is a very luxurious and exclusive moment in which an audience actually attends a very lively event. Sometimes it is very cathartic, it can be liberating, it can also be beneficial for the soul.
The play "The Reader", Liješević's interpretation of the famous novel by Bernard Šlink, problematizes and analyzes, among other things, the conflicts of the post-war generation with the Holocaust and concentration camps. How current are such questions and topics in the Balkans, especially after the events of the XNUMXs that reawakened similar issues in the area of the former Yugoslavia?
You know what, dealing with the past is a theme that is present in many societies, perhaps in different historical periods. Here, now it happened to us that after 2000, when finally all the wars were officially over and when we just continued to not tolerate each other and stab each other through the manipulations of people who are first of all the holders of power, but also those around them. For decades now, we have been drawn into this endless game of who loves whom and who does not love whom. It is a shameless game played by people who are much more powerful, more skilled and more cunning than us, and who play this game with the people. I think it's something that people, whether out of ignorance or other reasons, surrender to and allow themselves to be carried away by it, but I also think there's a significant number who don't succumb to it. The theater addresses exactly those people and encourages them in a way, encourages them to look the truth in the eyes and to stop and think. This play is one such play that deals with that problem of facing the truth. It is difficult to face the truth in one's own life, let alone such great historical traumas as some collective traumas experienced by an entire nation.
The culture of memory is often talked about in public, various dates, victims, heroes are commemorated, but we are still divided in various possible ways... It seems that we have not overcome what destroyed us, as if the conflicts are still ongoing or have never been resolved. . How to overcome it or how to resist when such a discourse prevails in a large part of the public?
You know what, I understand it's there, but I can't deal with it anymore. My brain refuses to think any further on the subject. I don't divide people and I don't know how and in what way, except with my life, and I have already stepped deep into serious age, to influence these things to change. Since I can't change it, that is, cancel it, since I can't use some magic wand to make people stop dividing among themselves and being enemies to each other - I simply gave up.
The play "The Reader" also talks about what is left as a legacy to the younger generations. Just like Michael Berg's generation, many generations today live under the burden of wars and mistakes that few countries have truly faced to overcome or understand. So, what remains for generations to come?
Everyone leaves what they have. I leave to the younger generations the films I made, as well as everything else that was recorded on film tapes, for a long memory. I leave the words I spoke and those performances that will remain in the memory as long as the people who watched them live. And after that I don't know what will come and how it will be. I think that at some point the older generations can no longer be responsible for the fate of the young, but that the young have to make a little effort themselves. I see that they, each in their own way, are fighting for positions in their society and their environment. I can't generally judge whether what we leave behind is good or bad, it's not particularly spectacular, there are a lot of terrible things, but what are you going to do... Life is like that: a mixture of many terrible things and a little bit of beautiful.
Predrag Antonijević previously revealed that you will play Dara in the series "Dara iz Jasenovac", which takes place 50 years after Jasenovac and the Second World War. What do you think about the film "Dara from Jasenovac", which caused a number of different comments, both in Serbia, in the region, and even in the world? What will the series bring and what is Dara like after 50 years?
I would leave this topic for another conversation.
The end of 2021 is approaching... How would you sum it up? Do you have any future plans, what are you currently working on?
For me, somehow, this year was not as bad as I thought it would be. And I, like many, got used to it and agreed, accepted that there is a disease called the corona virus that tightens us up and slows us down quite a bit in everything... But it doesn't just slow me down, it slows down all of humanity... When I look at the fact that I did not get sick, that I worked and that I managed to survive both financially and certainly, and that I managed to close the financial construction of my next film that I will shoot next year, that I am now working on a new play that will be played in parallel in Belgrade and in Zagreb, and it is the play "The Stone" directed by Patrik Lazić, in which three actresses from Belgrade and two actresses and one actor from Zagreb play... When I put it all together - this year will end well for me and I can only knock on wood and hope that the next one won't be worse.
Today I understand Petrija better than 40 years ago
One of the roles that can be said to have marked your work is "Petria's Wreath", which you recently revived again, this time in the theater... What does it look like to play Petria from a time distance of several decades and how different is this one from the previous Petria ? Do you compare your role in a play today to your role in a film many years ago and how challenging is it to portray the same role through both mediums?
I am now performing a theater play based on Dragoslav Mihajlović's text "Petri's Wreath" and it is something completely different from the film. Film is a completely different medium, here I am after all me - alive, in front of the audience... The fact that this woman speaks as if it were some of her life experience - today, at my age, I can understand much better and can almost accept it that those words speak of an experience of mine... When I was 20 years old and when I played Petrija in the film, I somehow felt and sensed the fate of that woman, I had an empathic relationship with her then, but still I was not as old as I am today . The 40 years that separate those two Petries is a serious period of life in which you understand and learn a lot, you look at life differently, perhaps more fully, richer, with much more understanding and with much more wisdom.
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