Biljana Srbljanović

Biljana Srbljanović (Serbian Cyrillic: Биљана Србљановић, born October 15, 1970 in Stockholm, Sweden, now claiming Belgrade, Serbia [cite video |people=Biljana Srbljanović, Aleksandar Popović, Aleksandar Vučić, Dragan Đilas, Žarko Obradović |date2=2008-04-20 |title=Utisak nedelje |url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FWTOUfemfo |medium=Television production |publisher=B92 |location=Belgrade, Serbia |accessdate=2008-04-24] ) is a Serbian playwright and politician.

She wrote five plays for the theater, and one TV screenplay for "Otvorena vrata" TV series that ran on Radio Television of Serbia during the mid-1990s. Her plays were staged in about 50 countries. Srbljanović is also a part-time lecturer at the Faculty of the Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. On the December 1, 1999, she became the first foreign writer to receive the "Ernst Toller" prize. She is the recipient of various theatre awards, such as: "Slobodan Selenic Award", "Osvajanje Slobode Award", "Belgrade City Award", and "Sterija Award".

Biography

Biljana Srbljanović obtained her dramaturgy degree in 1995 at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. The first play she wrote was "Beogradska trilogija" ("The Belgrade Trilogy"), which was played for the first time in 1997 in Belgrade, Serbia at the Yugoslav Drama Theater. After its huge success the play was shown in many other countries like Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, England and in the Scandinavian countries.

In April 1998 her second play "Porodicne priče" ("Family Stories") was created in Belgrade and was staged at Atelje 212. It won the Best New Play Award at the theatre festival in Novi Sad, Serbia and was later staged in Germany, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, United States, Switzerland, the Netherlands, France etc.

In December 1999, Srbljanovic finished the play entitled "The Fall" which premiered in July 2000 at the City Theater Festival in Budva, Montenegro. Due to obvious lack of public interest, the play was quickly erased from the program of Belgrade`s theaters.

The world premiere of "Supermarket", her fourth play, took place in May 2001 at the Festival of Vienna (Austria). It is still played in many European countries.

In late 2003, Srbljanović finished writing her fifth play "America, Part Two". The play became the most popular play in Serbia in 2003 and 2004. Many people agree that it's her best play until now, while many think it is far from being good.

Biljana Srbljanović's next play, "Skakavci" (Grasshoppers) won The New Theatrical Realities Award. The award is one of the most prominent European theatre awards. Also, in the season 2005/2006, German theater magazine Theater Heute proclaimed Biljana the best foreign playwright of the season. [ [http://www.b92.net/eng/news/society-article.php?yyyy=2007&mm=04&dd=24&nav_category=126 B92 - News - Society - Serbian playwright wins prestigious award ] ]

In 2006 she married the former French ambassador in Serbia - Gabriel Keller.

Since 2007, she's a member of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), with an additional role as member of the party's political council. [ [http://www.b92.net/info/vesti/index.php?yyyy=2007&mm=04&dd=23&nav_id=243233&nav_category=418 B92 - Vesti - Lečić napustio predsedništvo LDP-a - Internet, Radio i TV stanica; najnovije vesti iz Srbije ] ] Srbljanović is LDP's candidate for mayor of Belgrade оn Serbian local elections, 2008.Her latest play is Barbelo.

Controversies

Apart from her writing career, Biljana Srbljanović is an outspoken figure and as such very prominent in Serbian public life. She is known for frequently speaking up on various political topics, as well as for railing against what she views to be "the irresponsibility of the political elite in Serbia", "Serbian violent nationalism" and "the culture of violence and exclusion in Serbian daily life". Some even go so far as to view her work as largely stemming from her political and moral outrage at the situation in Serbia over the last few decades. On the other hand, many others believe that her political activism is a form of self-promotionFact|date=March 2008.

In September 2001, Srbljanović was sued for libel by film director Emir Kusturica as a result of calling him "an immoral Milošević's profiteer" in an interview for "Vreme" magazine. She claimed in the same interview that Kusturica's 1995 film "Underground" was mostly financed by Serbian state TV (RTS), which was financially and editorially controlled by Milošević's regime at the time. The court ruled in Kusturica's favour as her claims couldn't stand up to closer scrutiny after Kusturica's attorney Branislav Tapušković provided a complete documentation of "Underground" producers and financiers thus proving that funding mostly came from the European production companies while parts of the movie were only shot in Serbian studios. The majority of the public, however, was stunned with Srbljanović's accusation seeing that her own TV series "Otvorena vrata" was fully produced by and shown on Serbian state TV (RTS) during the same period 1995/96 when Milošević's regime held full control of RTSFact|date=March 2008.

Since May 2006, she maintains her own blog on the B92.net site where among other things she frequently criticises various individuals, mostly Serbian politicians and other figures who publicly display political leanings that she doesn't agree with. She got into a heated exchange with Serbian president Boris Tadić's adviser Nebojša Krstić, and even went after basketball player Milan Gurović, referring to him as "that tattooed idiot", for having a tatoo of World War II Chetnik leader Draža Mihailović on his arm. Gurovic said in reply that "women at her age can be foolish sometimes if they don't get their portion of c-ck in the morning. She must've awoken unf-cked." [ [http://arhiva.kurir-info.co.yu/Arhiva/2007/jul/25/SP-02-25072007.shtml KURIR ] ]

Quotes

* "The author requests humane treatment of animals in the setting of the play.
The author does not insist on the same principle applied towards humans." [ [http://blog.b92.net/arhiva/node/5770 Sto me nema. | Blog B92 ] ]

Trivia

Srbljanović is related to Radovan Karadžić, wartime political leader of Bosnian Serbs, currently on trial after being accused of complicity in war crimes by the international tribunal at The Hague. [ [http://arhiv.slobodnadalmacija.hr/20060308/kultura01.asp] [http://arhiva.glas-javnosti.co.yu/arhiva/2006/03/10/srpski/K06030902.shtml] ] About this relation, she says, that "only viruses are transfered over blood" suggesting that way that she is not ideologically related to Radovan Karadžić.

References

Persondata
NAME = Srbljanović, Biljana
ALTERNATIVE NAMES = Биљана Србљановић
SHORT DESCRIPTION = Serbian playwright
DATE OF BIRTH = October 15, 1970
PLACE OF BIRTH = Stockholm, Sweden
DATE OF DEATH =
PLACE OF DEATH =