Jami District

Première: 2017 
Running time 1 hour 40 minutes. No interval.
The performance is in Serbian with Slovenian surtitles.

Director Kokan Mladenović
Composer Marko Grubić
Costume designer Ivana Nestorović
Cast Isidora Simijonović, Vanja Nenadić, Nina Nešković 
Musicians Vrooom (Jamal al Kiswani, Marko Grubić)
Narrator Danica Grubački

The mockumentary is based on an invented, yet plausible discovery: in the village Jamena, at the tripoint of Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, scientists have discovered the oldest Palaeolithic settlement in the history of humankind. The discovery is important, because it places the creation of the human race thousands of years in the past – Homo sapiensis significantly older than it was proven before. The question of succession creates an altercation and war between the tripoint states. More than 150,000 people die. After the armistice, the ancient Jamena becomes a protected area under an international protectorate, and the global corporations build the largest science-entertainment complex in the world there. Around one hundred survivors from the formerly hostile countries dressed in Neanderthal costumes entertain the masses of tourists. About nationality and statehood in the high-tech 21stcentury: "Nations create wars and wars create nations. Who was the first? We’ll prove it! The nation that proves it has descended directly from the ape, wins a free ride in the amusement park of history." Coming from the fact that the concept of nation is a construct of the 19thcentury, the production asks how this relatively "new" invention managed to establish itself as if it were here forever. Will the idea of a nation end in the dumpster of history? What will replace the idea of nation and nation state? And what is worse: a nation or a corporation?  

Awards

In addition to the Sterija Award for the best production, Jami District won an additional six awards at the 63^rd Sterijino pozorje Festival: for best modern text, directing, acting (Graovac and Nešković), costume design, and Isadora Simijonović received the Dara Darinka Čalenić Award for the best young actress.