As part of the Reconnection 2.0 program, which was created in collaboration between Heartefact and Qendra Multimedia and supported by the European Union Office in Kosovo, translations of plays by author Doruntina Basha, “Stifler” and “Parallel/Normal” have been published. This program represents an artistic exchange between Belgrade and Pristina with a focus on developing a culture of dialogue and better communication between the two societies.

Doruntina Basha, a playwright and screenwriter from Kosovo, has been a longtime collaborator and friend of Heartefact. Her play “Finger” won first place in our 2011 competition for the best contemporary engaged full-length text, after which we staged it. This month, ten years after its premiere directed by Ana Tomović, the play returns to the repertoire at teh Heartefact House, performed by Jasna Đuričić and Milica Stefanović.

Doruntina Basha lives and works in Pristina and is one of the most well-known contemporary playwrights in Kosovo. She studied dramaturgy at the Department of Theater at the University of Pristina and earned her master’s degree from the European Humanities University Consortium, which includes the University of Bergamo and the University of Perpignan. In this podcast with Biljana Srbljanović, Doruntina talked about growing up in Kosovo, the wall that was built in her elementary school to separate Serbian and Albanian students, the first film she saw and the importance of cinemas for her generation, mass poisoning in schools in the 1990s, femicide, and other topics that inspired her new plays.

If you are interested in the book of plays by Doruntina Basha, please contact us by email at [email protected].