Coffee With Mira

Playwright Aleksandar Popovic and the author of the current theatrical mega-hit ``Dark is the Night,'' reviewed Mirjana Markovic's (Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic's wife) book ``The Answer.'' A lot has been written about Popovic. Ms. Markovic's literary efforts have not yet been assessed, only gossiped about...

VREME: A question making the gossip rounds: how come you're involved in the project?

POPOVIC: It all started with the recommendation of a joint friend, a friend of many years who spent time with me on Goli Otok (an island where recalcitrant Communists and others were imprisoned after Tito's break with Stalin in 1948), and who asked me to read some of Mirjana Markovic's texts. I didn't know much about her up to that point, except of course that she was the President's wife and that she had a column in the form of a diary in the Belgrade biweekly ``Duga.'' And since its been a long time that I've read any papers, I did not know her as a writer.

But, as I have a very high opinion of my friend's judgement, he is a very intelligent and highly-educated man (and whose name I will not mention), I decided to contact Mirjana Markovic, and see what it was all about. Actually, I didn't need my friend's recommendation, except to acquaint me with the fact that Ms Markovic wished to publish a book. I have never turned down someone who has asked me to read what they, or someone else have written. Regardless of the quality.

VREME: How did you come to meet Ms Markovic?

POPOVIC: We met first in a small restaurant at the beginning of Tolstojeva St. It's a perfectly normal restaurant and anyone can walk in. We met and talked a little. I became interested in what she was doing and the way she looked at things. We agreed to meet again soon, and work out the details concerning her book. She left me her number, and I phoned a few days later. She asked me if we could meet and I said yes. I told her it wouldn't be very convenient if she came to my place, since my flat is very small, practically one room. ``I know,'' she said. She invited me to come over and promised to send a car round, because she knew I didn't have one. I thought it was very nice that they knew everything about me, how I live, how I get about... She said that she ``knew me well,'' and I told myself it must be because I never hide things from people.

I entered the garden and was surprised not to come across any security. The front door was open, and I walked in shouting: ``Is anyone at home?'' Mira showed up, and that was the start of our second meeting. In our conversations so far, we had agreed on many things, and I told her what I thought of her book.

VREME: What things did you agree on, and what do you really think of the book?

POPOVIC: I tell you, many things. For example, that all this that is happening to us is degrading. That we have been historically abused, and that a very successful scenario has been drawn up with regard to our region, one which failed in Romania. We agreed that the Socialist bloc in the world has been shattered, but that that wasn't enough, and that the member countries had to be broken down further still. And that the end has probably been reached.

A painstaking process of unification follows, the process of creating order out of chaos, and that will be very difficult! A New Yugoslavia is in the offing, but no one knows what it will look like.

A far as my opinion of the book is concerned, I have already given it in the review, and at the promotion.

VREME: What is you relationship with the people in authority now, and the Left in Serbia?

POPOVIC: At the promotion I saw some important political figures. I knew some by sight from before, but that was all. I have met a lot of people in my life, but that doesn't mean that I have been friends with them.

Our Left has missed its chance, and I don't think it will ever get it again. The League of Communists-Movement for Yugoslavia (SKPJMs Markovic is one of the party leaders. note) asked me to be their candidate at elections. And guess what I told them? I said: You had the state security, the Yugoslav People's Army, the police, over 2.5 million members and you lost power overnight! Now you want to win it back with TV spots, don't be ridiculous! That's what I told them. I refuse to take part in something that has nothing to do with reality.

People don't understand what they've done. They've allowed Slobodan Milosevic to dissolve them with one word. And that's the way it was. He said: As of today, the League of Communists doesn't exist any more. And nobody protested, nobody said: I beg your pardon, but you have no right to dissolve a federal organization just like that; you can found your Socialist Party, but leave us alone. We'll go to the elections, and if we get three percent, it doesn't matter, what is important is that we still exist.

VREME: You mean to say that you don't support the Socialists or the new League of Communists?

POPOVIC: No way. There's a great difference between us: they're all Titoists, and I'm a Bolshevik!

To get back to gossip. Your friendship with the First Lady and work on publishing her book, haven't brought you any gain, have they?

I don't know, there is talk of my being appointed director of our Cultural Center in Paris. A little while ago Branko Cvejic (an actor) came around to congratulate me and to say that it would be nice if I took an actor along with me. This was my big chance of getting something out of the current authorities, and that is one way of looking at my activities in our cultural life.

Another aspect is the fact that I didn't ask a fee for my review. It is assumed that town gossips know which of the two is true. I personally, wish to tell them that I am still sane, and when I feel that my reason has started to fail me, I'll go to the first municipality and ask for guardians, who will then tell me who I can and who I can't see...