While socialist Yugoslavia existed, Pula was synonymous with film. In a country whose lifelong president was a film buff, within a cinematography that produced a decent number of films annually, it was the city where the film and social cream of the entire SFRY gathered every summer at the domestic film festival. When with the independence of Croatia, from the local perspective, the phrase "domestic film" became much narrower, Pula remained a festival of domestic films, but it was no longer that. Sarajevo took advantage of the newly created vacuum, and through the regional competitive selection at the Sarajevo Film Festival, this city asserted itself as the central post-Yugoslav film-festival center. However, precisely in those early nineties, when the film festival in Pula "narrowed down", this city got its own literary manifestation: the Fair which, here, celebrated its twentieth birthday this December. It is somewhat paradoxical at first glance, but outside of Croatia, at least in some circles, Pula is perhaps better known today for the Book Fair than for the film festival.
WE MUST DREAM: Officially, the Book Fair in Pula is called the Book Fair in Pula, and that graphic-journalistic quip where ambiguity is ensured by parentheses has been wittily "translated" into English as well Fair becomes Fair(y). The fair was created around the Pula bookstore Castropola, organized by its owner Magdalena Vodopija. In the meantime, the bookshop, as another victim of the famous economic crisis, was closed, but the Fair survived and - as they say - is progressing more and more every year in every respect. This year, the President of the Republic of Croatia, Ivo Josipović, and the Minister of Culture, Andrea Zlatar, appeared at the opening, and it has become a rule that at least one true world literary star visits Pula every year, at least from among serious candidates for the Nobel Prize (it used to be namely, "ready-made" Nobel laureates like Orhan Pamuk). Also, the Fair in Pula is one of those events that all participants talk about favorably and in superlatives, without phrases or courtesies. Bearing in mind that the entire Fair developed primarily from the enthusiasm of Magdalena Vodopia and her associates, the quip with dreaming of books makes sense. Until a few days ago, my image of the Book Fair in Pula was mediated by the media and pubs: either I read about it or friends, colleagues and acquaintances recounted the experiences from the Fair. And this December, I was also at the Fair. What follows is a sketch of first impressions, a postcard, as it were.
SPRING EVEN IN DECEMBER: Everything begins and ends at the Fair in a large building officially called the Home of Croatian Veterans. The building is about a hundred years old; it was built in 1913 as a naval casino of the Austro-Hungarian Navy. During the SFRY, it was, I assume, what was called the JNA Home or the Army Home. Both in dimensions and architecture, the building is reminiscent of similar Habsburg buildings. It actually looks a lot like the Dom mijeja in Sarajevo, with an almost identical balcony above the entrance staircase. In the building abbreviated as DHB, there are publishing stands with books for sale, a press center and a guest office, as well as rooms where programs, promotions and literary evenings are held. The central theme of this year's edition of the Fair is 1914. years, that is, the hundredth anniversary of the Sarajevo assassination and the beginning of the First World War. Various books related to the central theme in one way or another are promoted, discussions and "round tables" are held. On weekdays and weekends, in the morning, afternoon and evening, the programs are attended by a large number of people: from high school students to pensioners. Pula is not a big city and it is obvious that the Fair has "educated" its audience and is still "educating" it. And all kinds of things are being presented and happening: two books by Mark Thompson - a translated biography by Danilo Kish and a monograph on the Italian front in the First World War, which is still untranslated in our country, a new novel by Ante Tomić, new books by Teofil Pančić and Igor Mandić, new prose by Klaudio Magris... And all this in December days that remind of spring. The sun is shining, the sky is blue, the temperature is around fifteen to sixteen degrees, the sea is calm, and there are even rare bathers.
I'M FILLING OLD NEWSPAPERS: As usual at such literary events, at least from the perspective of the participants, the key things happen in informal gatherings. All participants are accommodated in the same hotel, so meetings and chats in the lobby, elevators and breakfast room are inevitable. There is no free internet in the hotel rooms, so those who have to write emails with computers go down to the pub. The DHB can be reached from the hotel in half an hour's easy walk, but guests of the Fair also have free transportation by city buses. Buying a newspaper to read with my morning coffee, I am surprised when I see "Nacional" in addition to "Globus". I thought that "National" was closed a long time ago?! I buy the current issue and see that it is actually the first issue of the newly renewed magazine. There are all kinds of upheavals in the Croatian media galaxy. It was also evident at the fair promotion of the book The laughter of freedom: Introduction to Feral Tribune Boris Pavelić. It is a voluminous book, a monograph of the famous Split weekly. The atmosphere in the audience was tense, there was resentment that Albert Faggian, one of the publishers of the book, also the owner of the Pula "Voice of Istria" and the Rijeka "Novi List", which many Pula residents believe destroyed their local newspaper, also addressed the audience. he plans to do the same with more well-known Rijeka newspapers. People generally complain that joining the European Union has not changed anything for the better. Life is even worse than before. There is not too much euphoria about the campaign for the presidential elections, but polls and the pulse of the public agree that even if Josipović is elected president again, there is no chance that the SDP will win again in the parliamentary elections.
GET THE RHYTHM: Pula has a good rhythm. It has the openness that port cities generally have, it has the patina of a place with a past more brilliant than the present, it has interesting historical highlights. Also, Pula has an airport that is close to the city center, and which, while you are walking around aimlessly, seems to be very busy. Every now and then, you see a plane rising above you, and it's close enough that you can recognize the company's insignia on the tail. Aside from the whole story about Joyce, aside from the large posters plastered all over the city with quotes from guests of the Fair, from Miljenko Jergović to Ljudmila Petruševska, it is nice and literary to pass by the graffiti Journey to the end of the night. Pula also has what characterized Yugoslavia, and what some of its cities have preserved to a greater or lesser extent, namely, it has elements of three crucial civilizational complexes: the Mediterranean, Central Europe and the Balkans. It's nice when the three of them come together. At the joint promotion of new books by Teofil Pančić and Igor Mandić - as part of the program Author reads author, so Pančić represented Mandić, and Mandić represented Pančić - at one point, Mandić wanted to share a passage from Pančić's book with the audience. 39 days of June. The passage mentions, among other things, a black woman with hair like pitch black. What's wrong with you, cursed Mandić theatrically, while Teofil Pančić replied that, well, pitch black a well-known phrase, and no one even knows what it is, to forgive, zift. Where did he get that from, I wonder, so in Bosnia, it seems to me, almost everyone knows that pitch is tar. Something seems to be on the box Izmir, terribly strong Turkish cigarettes that were smoked during the war through who knows what kind of export-import, on the box with a milligram of nicotine, it stood and milligram - zip. After the promotion, I mention to Ivan Lovrenović that I find it strange that neither Mandić nor Pančić, both truly erudite, do not know what a pitch is, and Lovrenović laughs and says: The Balkans are weak. And really, I think, Pančić is a typical mytho-European, while Mandić is a man from the Mediterranean. The Balkans is something else. By the way, the most luxurious accommodation facility in Pula, the proud holder of five stars, is called Villa Vulin. Driving by taxi to the bus station, early in the morning, at half past six in the morning, I look once more at the road sign that directs the intending traveler to that villa with a charming and above all associative name. From Pula to Belgrade, namely, buses run either at six in the morning or at eight in the evening. It's a pain to get up early, but it's even more pain to spend the whole night on the bus. Half-asleep, I put together impressions from Pula and watch how we buy passengers for Belgrade in Rovinj and Rijeka. Not long after exiting the Zagreb-Rijeka highway, the driver takes his first break. I buy a coffee and mechanically look at the fiscal account. The place name where the rest area and gas station are located is Ravna Gora. There came a time like that, I think sleepily from Mandić, that even in Istria and Kvarner you can't escape from Vulin and Ravna Gora.
