EU Integration

Mostograditelji - Bridge Builders

Danko Rabrenović is a musician, author, stand-up comedian and radio presenter - “storyteller”, as he says himself. He grew up in Belgrade and left his home country in 1991 to avoid having to take part in the war in Yugoslavia. He released four albums with his band Trovači, wrote two books and hosted the cult radio show “Balkanizer” for eleven years.

In this episode, Danko Rabrenović talks about emigrating to avoid having to go to war against fellow citizens, and about the difficulty of building a new life in a different culture. Ultimately, however, the European Union offers more opportunities to live one’s life the way one want to. To get there, people in the Balkans first have to learn to forgive each other.

Tamara Denić is an up-and-coming director born in Banja Luka in 1992 who was awarded an Academy Award Student Oscar for her film “Istina”. The film, which was partly shot in Belgrade, tells the moving story of a photojournalist who has to flee nationalist violence.

In the episode, Tamara Denić talks about growing up in two cultures and about the birth of a new mixed identity, a “diaspora culture”. It is remarkable how much the traumas of the previous generation shape the lives of the younger generation. Yet the mentality of people in the Balkans is so openhearted, and in its way just as “multicultural” as the European identity.

Danijel Majić & Krsto Lazarević are the founders of the successful German podcast “News from the Ballaballa Balkans”, the podcast “for polemics and palaver” from the region. Both of their families come from Bosnia and Herzegovina, although in Danijel's case from the Croatian part, while Krsto's family is Serbian. Both have repeatedly spoken out against nationalism and chauvinism and are regularly called traitors to their country.

In this episode, the two podcasters address the many misconceptions that exist about the Western Balkans both outside and within the region itself. In their opinion, much more concrete influences than nationality shape the character of both people and societies. The European Union offers every citizen the opportunity to develop free from conventions and social constraints.

Edita Malovčić is an Austrian actress and singer-songwriter. She was born in Vienna to a Serbian mother and a Bosniak father. She states that she is annoyed by the reduction to her “Yugoslav identity”: “It was very liberating for me to have the opportunity to say: ‘No, I am European.’”

Although reasons for growing disaffection between the Western Balkans and the rest of Europe exist, Edita Malovčić believes that these are far from being insurmountable. In terms of global politics, all European countries are in the same boat. She feels that the often-cited differences are in fact insignificant. The important thing is to be a good person, then identity, religion or faith play no role at all.

Emir “Muki” Mutapčić is a Bosnian basketball coach and former player. He participated for Yugoslavia in the 1984 Summer Olympics and worked in many different European countries. His centre of life has been Berlin for several years.

In his episode, Emir Mutapčić talks about his life as a Yugoslav basketball player, and how he experienced the disintegration of his home country. Both his life as a professional athlete and as a coach was characterized by exchanges with countless nationalities, which in turn shaped his cosmopolitan identity. He looks sadly at the narrow-minded life that has been established in the successor states of Yugoslavia in recent decades, and hopes that people will overcome their differences for the benefit of a common future in the European Union.

Gianni Jovanović is an entrepreneur, activist and performer. He is considered one of the loudest voices of the Rom*nja and Sinti*zze community in Germany. He also fights for the rights of minorities within the LGBTIQ+ community. In 2023, Jovanović, born in 1978 into a Roma family from Serbia, appeared as co-host of RuPaul’s “The Drag Race: Germany”.

In the episode, Gianni Jovanović discusses his experiences of racism in Germany and talks about the difficulties faced by the Roma community in being accepted as an intrinsic part of Europe. As a Roma who grew up in Germany with a Serbian family history, he describes his multifaceted identity, which cannot be limited to one nationality. The European idea is just as much a part of him as Serbian folk music.