Interview
Jasna Đuričić, Europe’s best actress
Film Diva Brings Glory
Photo: Nebojša Babić
To The Balkans
W
ith an awareness of her splendid talent, she always wanted more and succeeded in achieving that: Jasna Đuričić, alongside a bunch of local and regional awards, finally received the one she’d long desired: the European one. The European Film Academy (EFA) proclaimed Jasna Đuričić the best European actress in a leading role for her work in the film Quo vadis Aida, which was directed by Bosnian director Jasmila Žbanić, who also wrote the screenplay. Jasna had a feeling that she would receive this award… Female intuition. She already got that feeling last year, during the film’s world
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February
premiere at the Venice Film Festival. Known as a talented theatre actress who has given her own “tone” to each role she’s played, audiences regularly reward her with frenetic applause. It was only in her more mature years that she tried her hand as a film actress, and she also proved successful in that endeavour. She is also beloved by her students as a professor of acting at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Novi Sad. Her role of Aida, which resulted in her receiving recognition at the European level, prompted various reactions: from sincere congratulations and enthusiasm, to condemnation for her having accepted to star in a film that “represents Serbs as a genocidal nation”.
The fact that an actress from Serbia has been crowned the best in Europe for the first time ever hasn’t received the attention it deserves in our country.
Not in my wildest dreams did I think that something like this could happen. I didn’t receive a congratulatory message from even a single representative of culture and art. Not even from the Ministry of Culture. Do you concur with the view that powerful political party figures, but also many ordinary citizens, believe this film serves the function of politics and not art, as should be the case?
