Biljana SrbljanoviÃÂ (, ; born 15 October 1970) is a Serbian playwright and university professor.
She has written eleven theater plays and screenplay for Otvorena vrata television series that aired on Radio Television of Serbia during the mid-1990s. Her plays have been staged in some 50 countries. SrbljanoviÃÂ is also a part-time lecturer at the University of Arts' Faculty of Dramatic Arts (FDU) in Belgrade. On 1 December 1999, she became the first non-German writer to receive the . She is the recipient of various theatre awards in Serbia, including the , , , Joakim VujiÃÂ Statuette, and . Furthermore, she received the 2003 , an annual accolade given out by the Serbian Civic Alliance (GSS) political party to women for "contributions in promotion of human rights, democracy, and tolerance in political communication".
In 2007, she was awarded the IX Europe Prize Theatrical Realities, in Thessaloniki.
Srbljanoviàwas born on 15 October 1970 in Stockholm whereto her father Danilo Srbljanoviàhad arrived a few years earlier during the late 1960s as a gastarbeiter from SFR Yugoslavia in search of better employment opportunities. He would soon be joined by his girlfriend Miroslava Simiàwho came over from Yugoslavia. The couple wed in the Yugoslav embassy in StockholmâÂÂa civil ceremony presided over by ambassador Vladimir RoloviÃÂâÂÂand had their daughter Biljana. In April 1971, months after her parents' wedding, the embassy was attacked by a group of Croatian Ustashe-affiliated terrorists led by Miro Bareà ¡iàwho assassinated ambassador RoloviÃÂ.
SrbljanoviÃÂ obtained her dramaturgy degree in 1995 at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. The first play she wrote, Beogradska trilogija (The Belgrade Trilogy), was premiered in 1997 in Belgrade, Serbia at the Yugoslav Drama Theater. After its huge success, the play was staged in many other countries, including Armenia, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, England, and the Scandinavian countries.
In April 1998 her second play, PorodiÃÂne priÃÂe (Family Stories), was written in Belgrade and 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, the United States, Switzerland, the Netherlands, France and elsewhere.
In December 1999, SrbljanoviÃÂ completed The Fall, which premiered in July 2000 at the City Theater Festival in Budva, Montenegro. Due to lack of public interest, the play was quickly erased from the program of Belgrade's theaters.
The young artist can also be seen in the Serbian movie Land of Truth, Love and Freedom (Zemlja istine ljubavi i slobode) as an actress in a leading role.
The premiere of Supermarket, her fourth play, took place in May 2001 at the Festival of Vienna, Austria. It is still staged in many European countries.
In late 2003, SrbljanoviÃÂ completed her fifth play, America, Part Two. This became Serbia's most popular play in 2003 and 2004.
SrbljanoviÃÂ's next play, Skakavci (Locusts), won the New Theatrical Realities Award, one of Europe's most prominent theatre awards. In the 2005âÂÂ06 season, German theater magazine Theater Heute proclaimed Srbljanoviàthe best foreign playwright of the season.
Her latest play This Grave Is Too Small For Me has attracted international press attention as well as acclaim from various audiences in Europe.
In 2007, she received the IX Europe Prize Theatrical Realities, in Thessaloniki, with the following motivation:<blockquote>For her and for the people of her country which has suffered so much, it is undoubtedly the epithet âÂÂEuropean prizeâ that imports more as a confirmation of the fact that the Serbs are present and will be always present on this continent. Living in Serbia and in Europe at the same time, Biljana Srbljanoviàis not kind at all towards her compatriots: in the âÂÂBelgrad TrilogyâÂÂ, she revealed their dissimulated, two-faced morality; then, with anger, she draws a caricature of them in the âÂÂFamily StoriesâÂÂ. This author belongs to the current of the new European drama - courageous, open, brutal and it is not only in her own place that sheâÂÂs offensive: in âÂÂThe SupermarketâÂÂ, she left for the superficial Occident, than she had the courage to attack and criticise âÂÂLâÂÂAmerikaâÂÂ- it is in this part, that came to maturity her ability to realise characterâÂÂs deep, psychological characterization. âÂÂThe Fallâ analyzes people living in countries with totalitarian regimes, and in âÂÂThe LocustsâÂÂ, she goes back in her own country in the aim to draw a historical picture of four generations which worked out the corroded countryâÂÂs actual face. Biljana Srbljanoviàis not the only one politically committed playwright who criticizes with ferocity her own countryâÂÂs regime and the people supporting this regime: last year, Harold PinterâÂÂs name has proved us that sheâÂÂs not alone in her case. At all monochromic, Biljana SrbljanoviÃÂâÂÂs Balkans, have an outstanding environment; - rough, frank, quarrelsome and mystical. More than any of her predecessors, this playwright brought Balkans closer to the Europe and made us think about how much Balkan spirit is present in our souls as well. Her voice strongly echoed over the whole continent.</blockquote>
In April 2007, Srbljanoviàofficially joined the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), with an additional role as a member of the party's newly established political council. Alongside SrbljanoviÃÂ, other individuals appointed to the LDP political council were: Vesna Peà ¡ià(council president), Biljana KovaÃÂeviÃÂ-VuÃÂo, Bojan ÃÂuriÃÂ, Branko DimitrijeviÃÂ, , Filip David, Ivan AndriÃÂ, Ivan Torov, Jadranka JelinÃÂiÃÂ, Jasna à  akota, Latinka PeroviÃÂ, , Mià ¡a à  ahoviÃÂ, Nenad ProkiÃÂ, , , Petar LukoviÃÂ, Rajko DaniloviÃÂ, Saà ¡ka StanojloviÃÂ, Sonja Biserko, Srbijanka TurajliÃÂ, Veljko ÃÂuroviÃÂ, Vera MarkoviÃÂ, Vladimir Gligorov, Vladimir TodoriÃÂ, Zoran OstojiÃÂ, and Zoran Pureà ¡eviÃÂ.
In late March 2008, SrbljanoviÃÂ was announced as LDP's candidate for mayor of Belgrade at the upcoming May 2008 local elections.
Six months after the party's poor electoral showing in various Belgrade municipalities, she publicly complained on her personal blog of being marginalized by the LDP, specifically that "everyone within the party, except for Vesna Peà ¡iàand à ½arko KoraÃÂ, distanced themselves [from SrbljanoviÃÂ]" and that she has since learned that "everyone [in the party] has a price, whether it's commercial real estate in municipalities where LDP is part of the ruling coalition or salaried positions at the state-owned enterprises or an opportunity for future [financial and political] deals". Though quickly deleted, the blog post caused a lot of reaction from her party colleagues. Days later, reportedly following a talk with the party president ÃÂedomir Jovanoviàwho had in the meantime publicly expressed his support for the playwright's future in the party, Srbljanoviàcame out with a statement that interpersonal relations within the party are good while relaying a personal opinion that LDP is "the best political party in Serbia".
She has quietly left the party at some point over the years since.
In March 2018, SrbljanoviÃÂ's appointment to the newly established Government of Serbia Council for Creative Industries was announced. Formed and launched by Serbia's Prime Minister Ana BrnabiÃÂ, the council is envisioned as a "gathering of individuals and organizations possessing a wealth of experience in creative industries who will help the Prime Minister fully understand the needs of that sector and make informed decisions for its future development". In addition to SrbljanoviÃÂ, other council members include marketing expert Lazar Dà ¾amiÃÂ, Tijana PalkovljeviàBugarski, Vuk VeliÃÂkoviÃÂ, art historian Aleksandra Lazar, Youth Initiative for Human Rights NGO founder Andrej Nosov, Igor TodoroviÃÂ, Milan MarkoviÃÂ, Jasna DimitrijeviÃÂ, visual artist Slavimir Stojanoviàas well as representatives of Exit Foundation, Mokrin House, Serbia Film Commission, , and Nova iskra.
Immediately after the announcement of her appointment to the governmental agency, SrbljanoviÃÂ faced criticism of selling out to the government from various individuals including political activist .
Six month after the council was formed, in an October 2018 Nedeljnik interview, Serbia PM BrnabiÃÂ praised SrbljanoviÃÂ as "an intellectual she especially admires, someone who criticizes the government but is also willing to help" while adding that Serbia would be a better place if it had more brave people like her".
SrbljanoviÃÂ is the program director of the Heartefact fund, a Belgrade-based non-governmental organization active since 2009 in the Western Balkans politically defined region, that among its mission lists "rethinking of contemporary artistic, social and political issues and phenomena at national [Serbia], regional [Western Balkans] and European levels" and "advocating new models of production, regional [Western Balkans] cooperation and alternative forms of education" through "developing policies that support Erinnerungskultur (culture of remembrance), democratic values, human rights, freedom of speech and public sphere accountability".
Hertefact's organizational structure also includes Andrej Nosov, à ½ivana JankoviÃÂ, Mirjana MilivojeviÃÂ, Aleksandra LozanoviÃÂ, and Vana Filipovski while its governing board consists of FDU vice-dean Ana Martinoli, PR manager and piano professor Jelena Milaà ¡inoviÃÂ, political scientist, advisor, and NGO administrator , public advocate and lobbyist Goran MiletiÃÂ, and actor Branko CvejiÃÂ. The organization is financed by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), Open Society Foundations' Serbian branch, U.S. embassy in Serbia, European Union's Creative Europe programme, Serbian government's Ministry of Culture and Information, Swiss embassy in Serbia, Kingdom of the Netherlands, Heinrich Böll Foundation, etc.
SrbljanoviÃÂ has for decades been an outspoken figure in the Serbian public sphere.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, during her university days, SrbljanoviÃÂ was a close friend of Isidora Bjelica and wrote for the right-wing Pogledi magazine.
By mid-1990s, SrbljanoviÃÂ's political views swung to the left as she began fiercely opposing the policies of Slobodan Miloà ¡eviàas well as views held by individuals and parties in the Serbian political opposition on the right side of the political spectrum. In 1997, as one of the guests on Olja BeÃÂkoviÃÂ's Utisak nedelje talk programme on Studio B, Srbljanoviàsquared off against her former Pogledi editor-in-chief Miloslav Samardà ¾iàover the issue of American magnate George Soros injecting funds into the pro-Western Serbian media outlets, primarily B92.
Even after the 5 October 2000 Overthrow in Serbia, she continued railing against what she viewed to be "the irresponsibility of the political elite in Serbia", "Serbian violent nationalism" and "the culture of violence and exclusion in Serbian daily life". From May 2006 until February 2009, she maintained her own blog on the B92.net site where among other things she frequently criticized various individuals, mostly Serbian politicians and other public figures who displayed political opinions she opposes such as Nebojà ¡a KrstiÃÂ, adviser to the Serbian president Boris TadiÃÂ.
In 2010 SrbljanoviÃÂ opened a Twitter account where she continued commenting on Serbian politics. During late summer 2011, she got into several heated exchanges with the Democratic Party (DS) spokeswoman Jelena Trivan.
The artist is signatory of the Declaration on the Common Language of the Croats, Serbs, Bosniaks and Montenegrins within the project Languages and Nationalisms (Jezici i nacionalzmi). The declaration is against political separation of four Serbo-Croatian standard variants that leads to a series of negative social, cultural and political phenomena in which linguistic expression is enforced as a criterion of ethno-national affiliation and as a means of political loyalty in successor states of Yugoslavia.
In March 2001, Srbljanoviàwas sued for libel by film director Emir Kusturica as a result of her Vreme magazine op-ed in which she passingly refers to the director as "Miloà ¡eviÃÂ's immoral profiteer", accusing him of "direct collaboration with the [Miloà ¡eviÃÂ] regime through Milorad VuÃÂelià[Kusturica's friend and Serbian state-owned TV (RTS) general-director]". Srbljanoviàbased the accusation on her earlier claim within the same piece that Kusturica's 1995 film Underground was "mostly financed by the Miloà ¡eviÃÂ-controlled RTS". Six months later, in September 2001 right before the first court date, Vreme magazine organized a mediation attempt between the two parties, with Kusturica and Srbljanoviàmeeting face to face in the magazine's offices. At the meeting, Kusturica reportedly expressed willingness to drop the lawsuit if Srbljanoviàissues a public apology, which Srbljanoviàrefused. The next day, at the first court date, Srbljanoviàonce again rejected the offer of a public apology.
In December 2003, two and a half years after the initial filing, a municipal court (opà ¡tinski sud) in Belgrade ruled in Kusturica's favour as SrbljanoviÃÂ's claims couldn't stand up to closer scrutiny after Kusturica's attorney Branislav Tapuà ¡koviàprovided a complete documentation of Underground producers and financiers, proving that funding mostly came from several France-based production companies while parts of the movie were only shot on RTS sound stages in Belgrade.
In July 2007 Srbljanoviàcriticized basketball player Milan Guroviàon her blog, referring to him as "that tattooed idiot", for having a tattoo of World War II Chetnik leader Draà ¾a Mihailoviàon his arm.
Additionally, Srbljanoviàaroused controversy with her 18 February 2012 tweet referring to the news item about former Serbian interior minister Dragan JoÃÂiàgetting extra police security following the arrest of the organized crime figure . SrbljanoviÃÂ's tweet â "'JoÃÂiàgetting extra security detail' why? he ain't gonna run" â mocked the fact JoÃÂiàis physically disabled ever since his 2008 car accident.
SrbljanoviÃÂ set off a torrent of negative sentiment from the general public in Serbia after making an awkward joke on Twitter during the catastrophic May 2014 floods. The tweet in Serbian read "Excuse me for not being compassionate, but you have 10 more minutes to swim to the gallery for the promotion of the book Tomato". A flurry of tweets, Facebook posts and news updates were quick to condemn the post, and her Twitter account @leyakeller became unavailable shortly afterwards.
In January 2019, Srbljanoviàposted a vicious Facebook reaction to a tweet by the actor and newly appointed Movement of Free Citizens (PSG) leader Sergej Trifunoviàwhom she had previously collaborated with professionally in addition to a temporal overlap in their early 1990s respective studies at the University of Arts' Faculty of Dramatic Arts (FDU). Prompted by Trifunoviàtweeting about her early 1990s right-wing views and political activismâÂÂspecifically a tweet in which the actor-turned-politician recalls witnessing "the leather-overcoat-and-Doc Martens-clad first year dramaturgy student and White Eagles member Srbljanoviàbarge into the FDU commissary by kicking the door in anger and, in a manner of a political commissar, admonish the gathered crowd for 'eating and drinking while our brothers are dying in Slavonia and Baranya'"âÂÂSrbljanoviàlaunched into an obscenity-laced, insult-laden tirade on her Facebook account, denouncing TrifunoviÃÂ's morality, professionalism, personal hygiene, and accusing him of "responsibility in the assassination of Zoran ÃÂinÃÂiÃÂ". Serbian actress, film producer, and former FDU student , who has also had a prior professional history with SrbljanoviÃÂ, supported the veracity of the event Trifunoviàmentioned in his original tweet.
Srbljanoviàis related to Radovan Karadà ¾iÃÂ, wartime political leader of Bosnian Serbs, sentenced to 40 years in prison by the international tribunal at The Hague.
In 2006, following several years of dating, SrbljanoviÃÂ married the French diplomat Gabriel Keller, having met him during his 2000-2003 term as French ambassador to FR Yugoslavia. The couple divorced in 2014.
Srbljanoviàwas detained by police on 1 December 2011 while buying cocaine in Belgrade from twenty-seven-year-old street dealer Miloà ¡ "à  one" StanojÃÂiàand had a criminal investigation request (kriviÃÂna prijava) filed against her for possession of illegal substances. According to the information she provided during police hearing, in addition to the drug purchase she was caught for, Srbljanoviàhad also bought drugs from the same dealer four days earlier, each time paying â¬60.
Despite providing a detailed account of her drug purchases at the police hearing, two months laterâÂÂon 7 February 2012 during a hearing before the investigative judge (istraà ¾ni sudija)âÂÂSrbljanoviàused the right to silence as her defence.
The forty-one-year-old playwright eventually ended up avoiding being legally charged by taking a plea deal from the prosecutor's office in late March 2012âÂÂagreeing to donate RSD200,000 to charity as well as to testify against the dealer who sold her the drugs.