Due to the great interest, the play "Srebrenica. When the killed rise" authored by director Zlatko Pakovic was played twice in the Novi Pazar Cultural Center. The play was produced by the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, and after its premiere in Belgrade, it provoked countless attacks and threats against the entire team, Anadolu agency wrote Wednesday.

He is happy that the audience in many places across Serbia wants to hear what the play is about, but that the people working in cultural institutions, the decision-makers, are not brave enough to open the doors of the theatre for the play to take place.

Pakovic is convinced that only by acknowledging the genocide and condemning every crime is there a chance that they will not happen again.

“If you break with the old crimes and condemn those who commit them, then it means that you have abolished the possibility of further creation of the same crimes, at least for a while. It was not difficult for me to find actors for this play, because I always work with responsible actors, with actors who are ready to work outside the institutions and work on key issues, to make people more responsible, to call them to account. So, I usually work with responsible people, who are also actors,” said Pakovic.

The play will be performed in Belgrade on July 11, on the 26th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide.

“I went to Tuzla a long time ago while the mothers of Srebrenica were there, and I met them. That was some 15 or 20 years ago, we talked. I experienced the most shocking moments of my life then,“ the director said.

He added that they will play in Tuzla on July 8, “and on July 11, on the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Srebrenica genocide, we will play it in Belgrade. I am not disappointed at all, but I am saddened by how cultural, political elites, nationalists understand each other very well and that is our defeat.”

Zlatko Pakovic received the “Sterija Award” recently by a unanimous decision of the jury for directing the play “If you look into the abyss”, based on the novel by the writer Enes Halilovic. The play was produced by the Novi Pazar Regional Theater and the Novi Pazar Cultural Center.

In addition to the award for directing at “66th Sterija's Pozorje,” the play won awards for the best actor, the best young actress, the best original music and for the best play in general.