The first point on our journey was a walk organized by the local youth, during which they shared stories connected to their everyday lives. Each tenement house held its own unique and intimate tale. One was about a rescued bird that was learning to fly, another about longing for a friend, yet another about a childhood filled with dreams. There was also a story of great solidarity and the society’s—along with our guides’—efforts during the recent protests in Serbia.
This journey became the basis for creating material for an animated film about Subotica, focusing on what is essential, homely, and small-scale. The Sejny Chronicles group, together with our hosts, created a film about what we had seen during the walk. The main characters were our guides—young people who look at their center of the world with deep affection.
Bożena Szroeder oversaw this part of the work, Piotr Myszczyński was responsible for the animation, the artistic elements were handled by Karolina Kotowska and Ksenia Konopek, and the music was curated by Piotr Szroeder and Mikołaj Pohl, who together with the youth recorded the sounds of the city, the tenement residents, and even the trees.
Sunday concluded with a concert by the Klezmer Orchestra, held in the cozy garden of the tenement house that hosted us. Subotica, still home to a Jewish diaspora, warmly received this musical tale of our shared, neighborly past.
On Tuesday, Weronika Czyżewska-Pojcyljusz met with educators from Subotica to share the work of the Borderland Foundation. That day also featured a performance of The Sejny Chronicles, a story about the multicultural town of Sejny—which, in many ways, resembles Subotica. We were delighted to share the stories of our families, returning the gift of the hosts’ own narratives. Immediately after the performance, we premiered the jointly created film, taking viewers on a journey through this unique city in Vojvodina.
The next morning, we heard the birds of Subotica sing one last time before continuing our journey through Serbia.
Meanwhile, Staszek Czyżewski and Magdalena Barszcz are still working at Otvoreno srce sveta in Vrsac. Together with the group, they are preparing the final material, the main theme of which will be "heart". Through vocal improvisations, movement exercises and short musical compositions, a coherent sound story is slowly emerging, which they will present to the audience next Friday.
Poljski institut u Beogradu / Instytut Polski w Belgradzie
Mila Gavrilovic
Projekt finansowany z budżetu państwa w ramach konkursu Ministra Spraw Zagranicznych RP „Dyplomacja Publiczna 2024 -2025 - wymiar europejski i przeciwdziałanie dezinformacji”
