Prolonged applause, laughter and a bit of nostalgia for the former common state, the memory of which is preserved by a unique cultural space and, as the panelists particularly emphasized, the one and the same four-named language of the people of this area that you understand perfectly well, marked the promotion of the book "Jesi li video ovo" (Have You Seen This) by popular writers and journalists from Croatia, Ante Tomić, and Serbia, Dragoljub-Dražo Petrović, on Thursday evening.
Their literary evening, for which a place was sought in the garden of the Tivat Museum and Gallery, began this year's edition of the cultural event "Tivat Literary Summer", organized by the Tivat City Library.
The gathered large audience was greeted by the director of the Tivat City Library, Professor Vesna Barbić, and the festival was officially opened by the president of the Tivat Municipality, Željko Komnenović.
"I am very pleased to be at such a large gathering of those who love literature and the written word in an era when, it seems, people no longer read much beyond the titles and subtitles. I am also glad that the new Tivat Literary Summer will bring us some of the best authors in the region who will gather us on hot summer days around beautiful words and skillful bravura of the best creators we have in this common linguistic space that we like to call the region or the ex-Yugoslav space. I am especially glad that the Tivat Literary Summer begins with the masters of the column, fellow journalists Ante Tomić and Dragoljub Petrović. Authors whom we have been reading for decades, eagerly awaiting new texts. Something new, something witty, something that will make us laugh, and sometimes cry. Art in this region is often what makes us laugh and cry at the same time," Komnenović pointed out.
What followed was almost two hours of true pleasure for all lovers of the written word, sharp and incisive satire, in which Tomić and Petrović, with the brilliant moderation of N1 television journalist from Belgrade, Nataša Miljković, took the audience through both their own intimacy and their critical reflection on various phenomena in society in the former Yugoslav territories, which the two of them deal with in columns published on the "Velike priče" portal.
The audience had the opportunity to hear from Tomić for the first time the second chapter of his still untitled, new novel in the making, which takes place at the end of the 18th century in the Imotski Krajina region and which retains, for this popular Split writer, a characteristic humorous look at all the characteristics, flaws, but also virtues of the people who inhabit the areas of the former Yugoslavia.
The idea of Tomić and Petrovič, corresponding every week, writing columns on the "Velike pruče" portal, was supported by the editor of that media outlet, Veljko Lalić, who, as they pointed out, characterized the two as "the wittiest Croat and the wittiest Serb" and sensed that it was very important for these areas to see what could happen when "one Ante and one Draža" corresponded in a friendly manner.
"So they actually tricked us. My name is not Draža, my name is Dragoljub, Ante is Ante. We only saw what it was about later, at a turning point. They put us in a situation where people now expect it to be some historical Chetnik-Ustasha literary reconciliation," Draža Petrović explained with a smile, adding that before this correspondence, he did not know Tomić personally that well, but that in the spring of 2023, when things got started, he was a little worried about how he would literary compete in these columns with one of the most respected and most published modern authors in this region, such as Tomić, whose novels are extremely popular and many of which have also seen their own film versions.
"In the end, we really enjoyed corresponding and making each other laugh. We send each other letters on Tuesday afternoons, which are eagerly awaited, and then our reflections on various things emerge from them, sometimes even some completely ephemeral details mentioned in the previous letter, but which inspire us to make a new story out of it - a review, or a journalistic column," Tomić pointed out, explaining that in this epistolary form, each of the authors somehow builds on the previous letter of their colleague, which is why these columns are very inspiring for the publisher to collect between the covers of a book.
"The funniest Serb" and "the funniest Croat" have been exchanging opinions on various social events from all sides of the borders of the ex-Yugoslav countries, but also much wider, for a year and a half now, week after week - in these texts they also share themselves, their experiences, and segments of intimacy. Draža and Ante do all this in a humorous, often satirical manner, well known to everyone who has been reading their regular columns in various media for decades.
The conversation between the two in front of the Tivat audience, with the excellent moderation of Nataša Miljković, gave those present the opportunity to all reflect on the common language of the peoples of this region, the similar or almost-the-same mentality on the western and eastern sides of the Drina, similar social problems that plague intellectuals, but also the great sense of humor and self-mockery that characterizes both Serbs and Croats.
In the anecdotes recounted by Tomić and Petrović, the audience learned many “pinch points” from the lives of writers and journalists in this region, such as the reaction of the late Petar Luković to the failed suicide attempt of the famous Croatian singer Mišo Kovač, who did not care about all the wishes for his recovery that he received from the Croatian political and state leadership as much as hearing what Luković thought about his move, the failed first concert of Arsen Dedić, whose “refined ear” of the audience in Drniš in the Dalmatian Zagora did not forgive the poor interpretation of Bach’s spiritual music, memories of the erudition and supreme civic courage and integrity of the late Igor Mandić, anecdotes from the filming of the film “The Watchtower” and Sergej Trifunović’s idea to get the official JNA wolfhound guarding the border with Albania high on marijuana, Petrović’s initiative generated with a lot of alcohol to steal the relics of King Milutin from Sofia and give them as a good souvenir to the Serbian opposition before the elections, to Draža’s offer to the Anti The two rest together in the same tomb in the Alley of Meritorious Citizens in Belgrade, because Split, as it was said, does not have a cemetery for great people. The musical part of the program featured a performance by the duo Dušica Kordić and Nikola Vučković.
Bonus video:
