18.05.2019.

Promotion of Reprinted Edition “Nice Day to Die” by Momo Kapor in the Framework of Exhibition “Defence 78”

Today, in the framework of the exhibition of the Ministry of Defence and Serbian Armed Forces “Defence 78”, a presentation was held of reprinted edition of the book “Nice Day to Die” by Momo Kapor, which is an autobiographic work written in 78 days during the bombardment of Belgrade in 1999.

At the beginning of the promotion, the author’s spouse, Ljiljana Kapor, thanked the Ministry of Defence and the Museum of the City of Belgrade, and the author of the exhibition Dušan Jovović as well, for the exhibition “Defence 78” because of which the new edition was published and presented on that day.

- The choice of the occasion for the promotion is more than suitable having in mind that the destroyed buildings in immediate surroundings of the Museum testify to the bombs thrown on the very centre of the city, 500 metres in a straight line from our house where this book was written, and which was published in the moment when the charred remnants and ruins, that the “Merciful Angel” had left behind, had not been cleared yet – Ljiljana Kapor stressed pointing to the mark that the book had left on reading audience, and wider public alike after its publishing, which is supported by the fact that it was in the narrowest selection for the Nin Prise in 2000.

Looking back on the fact that Momo Kapor, during the bombardment, wrote his regular column “Shelter 011” in a military magazine of the time, the editor in chief of the magazine “Odbrana” Dragana Marković underlined that with his writing, Momo had made us all laugh at the enemy, reflect about ourselves, catch our breath between the fears and perceive the miracle of living as the greatest treasure that we had.

- Momo jokingly commented on that writing for the war time “Vojska” claiming that he was at that time the most translated writer from this region, because his work had been directly translated from the pages of that magazine into 19 languages of the countries that had bombarded us – Dragana Marković stressed adding that Momo had said that writing for the military magazine during the bombardment had been a great honour, but that it had also helped him not to lose dignity before himself and that his weapon in those wartime circumstances had been the very writing.

Speaking about the work of Moma Kapor, and about friendship with the writer in that period, a longtime journalist of magazine Nin, Radmila Stanković underscored that by rereading this work two decades later, she understood the message that the author had wanted to send by its title.

- The master of narration starts his novel by the sentence: “It is believed that in the moment of his death, a man’s entire life flashes before his eyes” and he ends it by already quoted sentence “Nice day to die”. Between those sentences, Kapor placed deep marks of life that had defined and hurt him. Reading this book today is like a painful walk through the life of the writer marked by bombs – the first one in Sarajevo from which his mother protected him with her life, to the bombs that were falling on Serbia in 1999, while he was writing – she emphasised adding that characters in the work “Nice day to die” had been based on real people whom the writer had met and knew in his life.
Boban Stoiljković addressed the present on behalf of the publishing house which issued the book “Nice day to die” pointing out that it was the fifth edition of that work by Momo Kapor, and that the plan was to translate this book and other titles of that writer into several foreign languages.

At the end of today’s promotion of the new edition of the Momo Kapor’s book, actresses Rada Đuričin and Vjera Mujović red excerpts from the book “Nice day to die”.

Commenting on the exhibition of the Ministry of Defence and Serbian Armed Forces “Defence 78” by the author Dušan Jovović, the actress Vjera Mujović underlined that the exhibition was infinitely precious for both the people living in our country and the foreign audience.

- I believe that it would be necessary to organise school visits and visits from other educational institutions, and to make it available to foreigners as well who come to our capital for some other reasons, especially for the purpose of cultural and festival tourism – she stressed adding that everything should be done so that the exhibition would become as visible as possible, and that it should become a permanent exhibition since it was a valuable testimony to the suffering of the nation.

Speaking about the exhibition, actress Rada Đuričin stressed that everybody was quite shaken by the exhibition.

- I have seen several films, listened to many stories, but I believe that nothing has made me so upset like this very exhibition organised by the Ministry of Defence. I think that it is tremendously important that as many people as possible see this exhibition – Rada Đuričin emphasised.

Musician Nele Krajlić toured the exhibition today as well, and speaking about his impressions, he underlined that he was shaken.

- I was there at the time, and we played on squares, but due to my particular defensive system which implies humour, I did not take it so tragically. I was proud of our great defiance, and of the fact that we can organise ourselves well in difficult times, but I did not have that feeling of being upset that I have at this moment, while I am looking at all of this 20 years later – Nele Karajlić stressed.