Eurovision Song Contest: What Hopes for Ex-YU?
Thirty years ago today, Bucks Fizz won the Eurovision Song Contest for the United Kingdom with their infectiously upbeat Euro classic Making Your Mind Up. What better time to look forward to this year’s event in Düsseldorf, on Saturday 14 May.
Attracting devotion and derision in almost equal measure, the Eurovision Song Contest is undeniably an event that gets people talking. This year’s glittering final will be held in Düsseldorf on 14 May, preceded by two televised semi finals on 10 and 12 May, when phone votes will say who goes through and who heads home early. Strict rules control who can vote in each semi final.
(Post) Yugoslav Film Festival: London
London film fans will be treated to a free two-day festival of cinema and discussion, attended by celebrated Yugoslav directors and rising stars of film-making in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia.
Foreigner: A Chance to Invest in Anglo-Serbian Film
Budding film financiers wishing to buy into the excitement of cinema can get a taste of their dream, thanks to an Anglo-Serbian co-production, to shoot in London and Serbia in August 2011. Producers behind the film Foreigner are inviting investors to share in their potential success by putting up cash to finance their production. With investments starting as low as £2, this could be a chance to enjoy the buzz of the film world and help significant film projects get off the ground.
The Box by Slavoljub Stanković : A Book Review
The Box could be described as the story of removal men, against the backdrop of a country on the verge of chaos. But that would only scratch the surface, and probably wouldn’t encourage reading. That would be a pity. It would mean missing out on an enjoyable romp of a read, peppered with laugh-out-loud moments and some genuine insights into life in early nineties Belgrade.
For his debut novel, Slavoljub Stanković has chosen the metaphor of boxes, of packing things out of sight and out of mind, to explain the ways of the world and how people deal with things.
Increasingly, our lives are compartmentalised, with what isn’t immediately required being boxed and shelved. It is a technique that works well to describe the stifling effect on ordinary people when a state becomes the world’s latest pariah.
