Film is a dying art, says Serbian director Dušan Milić
Film is a dying art and cinemas will soon become museums, according to award-winning Serbian director Dušan Milić, whose film Travelator is making its mark at international festivals.
Dušan Milić sees falling cinema receipts, audience apathy and the surplus of comic book rehashes as symptoms of the demise of cinema.
Changing appetites, new viewing habits and over-cautious investors all contribute to the downfall.
“Cinema is not in a good condition,’ said Dušan. “It has lost a lot of its glamour in recent times.
“Film as an art form is dying. Cinemas will soon be like museums. I don’t think culture is important to people anymore. As for the arts: nobody loves art anymore. Art is passé.
British-Serbian relations celebrated in heroic tale of women at war
The heroism of two women who met on the battlefields of Serbia will be recalled in a play to debut in London, this month, before a proposed tour of Britain and Serbia.
(un)decorated will portray the forgotten story of Yorkshire-born adventurer Flora Sandes (pictured right) and the most decorated female soldier in the history of war, Serbian shepherdess Milunka Savić (pictured below).
The Serbian City Club production at London’s Royal Central School of Speech and Drama commemorates the centenary of the Great War and is supported by the British Embassy in Belgrade and the Serbian Embassy in London.
This relationship is at the heart of the story, which emphasises the strength of diplomatic relations between the two countries for 177 years – one of the longest in British political history.
Journalists ignored as Serbian PM discusses press freedom
Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić made efforts to silence critics who claim his government is running roughshod over press freedom in Serbia – but any opportunity for invited media to ask questions was ignored at the event in London.
The Prime Minister took moderated questions from the standing-room-only audience at the London School of Economics, including an ambush from a political opponent and his legal team.
But repeated pleas and increasingly frantic waving hands from representatives of the invited Serbian and international media were brushed aside.
The moderator denied that this was deliberate, claiming it was due to there being so many questions from LSE students at what had been billed as an open-to-all event.
Police strikes and religious rhetoric cannot crush Serbian Pride
With the democratic rights of Serbia’s LGBT community effectively held to ransom by Belgrade’s police force, the fate of the controversial Pride Parade hangs in the balance once more.
The Serbian state, Orthodox Church and extremists have successfully crushed the Pride Parade in recent years.
The authorities could have been handed the justification to pull the plug on Sunday’s parade, too, thanks to opportunely-timed strike action being threatened by Belgrade police unions.
While police claim they will step in to protect the city if called upon, they have presented a perfect excuse for authorities that have previously used security issues to ban the gathering. Whether they choose to use their power to block the parade remains to be seen.
