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Will June be the month of Kosovo in Berlin?

2024-06-16 12:21:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Will June be the month of Kosovo in Berlin?

The Ambassador of Kosovo to Germany, Faruk Ajeti/ Photo DW

The Kosovo Culture Week in Berlin ended on Friday, June 14, with the screening of the films by Samir Karahoda "Pa Vend" and Dea Gjinovci "Sans Kosovo". "Pa Vend" tells the story of Prizren's post-war table tennis club, following the journey of two young players who carry table tennis tables from one place to another to keep their beloved sport alive. "Sans Kosovo" goes back even further into the history of Kosovo and tells the story of a physics student at the University of Pristina who, after being involved in student protests for Kosovo's autonomy in Yugoslavia, is forced to flee the country. The film shows the impact of exile on his life and that of his daughter, who tries to understand this part of her identity.

A special night at the Kesselhaus

The culminating event of the Kosovo Culture Week in Berlin was the concert of Vjollca Robelli-Mripas, held exactly on the day of liberation, on June 12. Ambassador Faruk Ajeti, in his speech, recalled that hundreds of thousands of Albanians were expelled from their homes, leaving behind a devastated country: "I was one of them. Like many of you. If someone had told me that after 25 years ago I would have spoken in Berlin at a jazz concert, I wouldn't have believed it. But we did it!" said Ajeti. He thanked Germany for the help it continuously gives to Kosovo: "Together with our German friends we managed not only to return, but also to rebuild a completely destroyed country that has become a democratic, independent, sovereign and multi-ethnic example not only in Europe , but worldwide."

Afterwards, the main character of the evening, Vjollca Robelli-Mripa, who, like Ajeti, spent the most important part of her childhood in the oppressive atmosphere of Slobodan Milosevic's regime, would sing a song about those years, the nineties. "90s" where she talks, among other things, about the most traumatic event in her life, the murder of her 13-year-old peer: "A traumatized boy, afraid for his life/ When the police shot him and he died."

SHE and DJ Galouchë - the two women who made everyone dance

The well-known Kosovar singer has written it entirely in English, to raise awareness of the injustices that occur in the world, the highest price of which is paid by children, as the mother of four children told DW. In the song, Vjollca Robelli-Mripa, who goes by the stage name "AJO", sensitizes: "Today, blood is still flowing somewhere, but you are blind, you don't see it, you are deaf, you don't hear it."

The repertoire of the concert consisted, apart from the songs composed by her, of happy Albanian civic songs, such as "Oj Zogo" or "Lule Lule". These and the subsequent performance by DJ Galouchë, aka Mevlude Kosumi, born in Rosenheim, Bavaria, enthralled the audience in the hall and had them dancing along, from regulars of the Berlin nightlife to Bundestag MPs and diplomats. foreign accredited in Berlin.

The Week of Culture began on Monday, June 10, with a photo exhibition of Arjan Mavriq, at the Embassy of Kosovo. The renowned wildlife photographer presented the natural beauties and wild fauna of Kosovo, sharing with visitors the challenges and moments of capturing these rare images. This was the first Kosovo Culture Week in Berlin, and Ambassador Faruk Ajeti has decided to make this an annual event.

Diaswhora Festival: A different activity

Berlin's activities commemorating the liberation of Kosovo did not end on Friday. On Sunday, June 16, 2024, an alternative Berlin group organizes a slightly different festival at the ACUD cinema. Diaswhora, a portmanteau of "diaspora" and "women", is organized by Jehona Jahaj, an Albanian activist and founder of Marrja Zeze. Born in Kosovo and raised in Berlin, Jahaj has as her vocation what she calls "intergenerational healing", which is why she has included in the program not only films and panel discussions, but also traditional foods, such as fli, and even music concerts. and a club night, where DJ Galouchë performs again. The team also includes Enver Hadzijaj, art director, artist and teacher at the AMD Academy of Fashion & Design in Berlin, as well as Leart Rama, film director and voice artist from Kosovo (Katarze Films and BLISS).

This festival also wants to be the first and be annual. If this happens, then the chances that June in the coming years will become the month of Kosovo in Berlin are not small. /DW