THE KOSOWARS
(fragment)
Characters:
Albanian Soldier & Serb Soldier
ACT ONE
(Shots from all sides and all sorts of weapons. In half darkness a person comes crawling into a cellar of an abandoned house. After a while, we understand that it is a wounded Albanian soldier who stops the bleeding from the wound on the left shoulder by skillfully bandaging it. He breathes heavily and every now and then lets out cries of pain.
After a while, when he manages to bandage his hand properly, the shooting stops. Then, the soldier notices a red laser light on his face. He freezes. Then the laser light moves fast around his face and body and the soldier gets really upset since he does not realize where the laser light is coming from.)
SERB SOLDIER: Who the fuck are you man!
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: Ha! (Stops… Realizes that the enemy sees him… keeps silent)
(A small light comes from the left hand side where another Serb soldier can be seen, with a machine gun in his hands, and he aims the laser light on the other soldier.)
SERB SOLDIER: Look at the motherfucking shiptar … No afraid a?
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: (Keeps silent.)
SERB SOLDIER: A hero than… Big fucking hero…Big balls… Big dick…
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: (Keeps silent and looks strangely quiet.)
SERB SOLDIER: Look at him… Straight into my hands … get up and get your hands up or I’ll make holes in you… get up…
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: (Gets up slowly.)
SERB SOLDIER: … Hands up, understand?… Motherfucking son of a bitch … Hands up you cunt!
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: (Raises only the right hand)…
SERB SOLDIER: So you do understand Serbian, don’t you?
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: Well…
SERB SOLDIER: Yes, yes, I know all you Albanians speak Serbian …
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: Of course, cause we’re intelligent…
SERB SOLDIER: Means that we Serbs are stupid?
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: (Keeps silent.)
SERB SOLDIER: Yes or no! … We don’t speak your language, so we’re stupid.
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: I didn’t say that … I just know that intelligent people speak more languages …
SERB SOLDIER: Look at him: a terrorist and a philosopher… KLA[1] philosopher…
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: I am a fighter.
SERB SOLDIER: You are a piece of shit.
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: Don’t…
SERB SOLDIER: (Louder.) You’re a piece of shit … get it – SHIT!
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: I am …
SERB SOLDIER: A piece of shit.
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: What!
SERB SOLDIER: Shit, shit… You and me, shit.
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: But…
SERB SOLDIER: Or even better: We’re both in shit.
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: You speak Albanian!
SERB SOLDIER: Of course…We were taught in Belgrade, before the war in Kosova began, and they told us that if we arrest some dumb-ass Albanian we fuck him up.
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: So…
SERB SOLDIER: So nothing.
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: But.
SERB SOLDIER: What?
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: I knew you have been preparing for this war for years
This genocide.
SERB SOLDIER: Your mum’s genocide… And who exactly prepared this genocide, you prick?
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: Who else but you?! (Wants to sit down again.)
SERB SOLDIER: . .. I told you to stay up or I’ll kill you like a dog! And where is the genocide prepared!?
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: Where?!
SERB SOLDIER: So genocide is something like a theatre play: you rehearse, do the best you can in the rehearsals and then you have the premiere and the showings… is this what you think?
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: But your plans for a genocide…
SERB SOLDIER: Don’t bullshit me you fuck!
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: Well, the fact that they taught you Albanian means a lot…
SERB SOLDIER: They taught me the fucking Albanian my ass.
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: But you speak it… and fluently…Just like me I would say. .. Good courses in Serbian Intelligence Service… In the Police Service… ha? For everything… even for Albanian language?
SERB SOLDIER: Yep, good street courses… In fact, in streets of Prishtina where I learned my Albanian.
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: Prishtina?
SERB SOLDIER: Yeah, yeah, because you Albanians think that you are the only ones that live here in Kosova… After all, if you were intelligent enough to learn Serbian, why wouldn’t I learn Albanian?
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: So you are…
SERB SOLDIER: From Prishtina, definitely.
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: Yah?
SERB SOLDIER: Yeah, I am…
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: Same here, before I moved I lived in Prishtina… In Dardania!
SERB SOLDIER: I lived in Dardania too!
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: I lived in the fifth block…
SERB SOLDIER: I too lived on the fifth block…
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: I lived in entrance E/2…
SERB SOLDIER: I too lived in entrance E/2…
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: (ironically.) You’ll turn out to be my cousin!
SERB SOLDIER: Well, maybe so.
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: Don’t fuck with me!
SERB SOLDIER: I used to love Prishtina so much once!
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: (Tries to sit down again.) So why then did you join your people from Serbia and destroyed your once so loved town, ha? And, …?
SERB SOLDIER: Don’t fucking provoke me!
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: And kill your, once, neighbors.
SERB SOLDIER: Don’t fucking provoke me I tell you and stay up or I’ll kill you! Like a dog…
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: (Looks at him suspiciously.) You are going to kill me!?
SERB SOLDIER: Yes… You are a piece of shit… And you might be just the piece of shit that shot at me during the fight… Motherfucking…
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: It couldn’t have been me. It’s not possible.
SERB SOLDIER: Why not?
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: Because I do not wound enemy soldiers.
SERB SOLDIER: You don’t wound them?
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: No. I kill them.
SERB SOLDIER: Look at the little piece of shit, a fucking show off he is too… You’re playing a hero, aren’t you!
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: Ah.
SERB SOLDIER: I tell you again, don’t fucking provoke me! I am telling you for the last time, otherwise I‘ll fucking kill you… Like a dog… a fucking gypsy dog…
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: Really?
SERB SOLDIER: No, I am joking. I‘ll fucking shoot you and make a big hole in you, and you fucking think it isn’t real… Motherfucking son of a bitch.
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: But you won’t do that.
SERB SOLDIER: No?
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: No?
SERB SOLDIER: No?
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: No.
SERB SOLDIER: (Getting tense.) No? You say no?
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: I say no.
SERB SOLDIER: But…
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: Cause you haven’t got the guts to do it… If you had any guts to kill me you’d have done it as soon as I came here… Not that you don’t want to, but you are afraid.
SERB SOLDIER: Ha-ha-ha: afraid you say?
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: Afraid, afraid.
SERB SOLDIER: I am afraid!
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: Of course, cause you don’t know which of the armies, mine or yours is positioned close to us, and you are afraid that if it is my guys and they hear the shot they’ll come here and fuck your stupid mum
SERB SOLDIER: Hey, look at him talk!
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: And they’ll fuck your dad too!
SERB SOLDIER: I…
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: And put the gun down cause I am not scared…
(Short pause.)
SERB SOLDIER: And what… what if my guys are in those positions? What then?
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: You think that that will change my position here?
SERB SOLDIER: And where are your guys?
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: Where are they?
SERB SOLDIER: Yes, yes, where are they?
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: Maybe they left.
SERB SOLDIER: Yes they left.
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: (Sits down slowly.) I said: maybe.
SERB SOLDIER: Get up, you motherfucker… get up!
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: I can’t stand any more… I lost blood and I feel dizzy.
SERB SOLDIER: Blood?
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: Yeah.
SERB SOLDIER: Yeah, blood!
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: It is a war, and in a war you shed blood… For freedom, I would add… At least in our case…
SERB SOLDIER: For freedom?
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: Depends on how you see the situation, because what is a liberation war to one is not to the other. To the other it is a…
SERB SOLDIER: … Well, well… You discovered America… “In war you shed blood”’ This is really unusual…So, in times of war, when somebody gets a period, that too is shedding blood “for freedom”, as you call it…
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: You’re a fucking nutcase.
SERB SOLDIER: Nutcase!
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: Yeah. I and don’t know what the fuck is a guy like you doing in a war. Or you Serbs…
SERB SOLDIER: What the fuck is a guy like you doing in a war?
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: I am a freedom fighter!
SERB SOLDIER: And I, according to you, am a slavery fighter!
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: I don’t what the fuck you are, but what I know is that in a war there is always the bad side and the good side.
SERB SOLDIER: Just like in western movies. Isn’t it?
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: No. Just like in a war.
SERB SOLDIER: Mumbo-jumbo!
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: Say what you like.
SERB SOLDIER: Vinetou… Old Shutterhand… Clint Eastwood… Dick… Thumb and Cisco Kid… (Short pause.) Take out your pistol and put it down!
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: (Looks at him briefly.)
SERB SOLDIER: Come on, come on… Quickly… I know you Albanians… One blink of the eye and you will put a bullet through my brains!
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: (takes the pistol out of the case slowly.) Brains!
SERB SOLDIER: Look at him… faggot… Thins he’s the only one with brains… So, it means you Albanians have brains and we Serbs don’t.
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: It means that if you had any brains you would not come and fight on somebody else’s soil.
SERB SOLDIER: Somebody else’s?
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: Yes.
SERB SOLDIER: Somebody else’s you say?
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: Yes, yes… You die in vain buddy! Your Serbs are having the time of their lives in Belgrade, and you are meat for cannons here.
SERB SOLDIER: And what about you. Who the fuck gives a shit about you?
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: Even if I get killed I will have a grave here. And you…
SERB SOLDIER: What about me?
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: Where the fuck is your grave going to be?
SERB SOLDIER: In Kosova, or somewhere else, it’s all the same to me, all the same – Six feet under and two tons of soil.
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: But it’s not the same.
SERB SOLDIER: How come?
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: Shouldn’t be, at least not for you, because Kosova is the land of Albanians.
SERB SOLDIER: Kosova is the cradle of Serbia.
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: A cradle rocking somebody else’s child!
SERB SOLDIER: He-he-he… Look at him… This is propaganda, you piece of shit, propaganda… Bad propaganda for that matter… Journalism… ” A cradle rocking somebody else’s child…”. You motherfucker, do you know what Kosova means to us?!… Kosova is our identity… Our Culture… Our holy land… (Pause.) Have you ever heard of Saint Sava?
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: Have you ever heard of Saint Jeronim?
SERB SOLDIER: Another western film isn’t it!!
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: No, saint Jeronim was a saint of Illyrian origin. An Albanian who brought the Bible and spread Christianity to Europe. So, an Albanian made Europe what it is today… an Albanian!
SERB SOLDIER: What was his name you said?
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: Saint Jeronim.
SERB SOLDIER: Your lying Saint Shit. Saint Sava lived in Deçan. In Deçan, which is just there. And the monastery is there…and now the lies about this saint of yours…
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: So, you claim this land just because there is a monastery in Deçan, with a portal turned westward by the way, which tells it is an Albanian monastery. It was the Albanians who guarded it for five hundred years during the reign of the Ottomans and you came and occupied it since your king declared himself a vassal to the Constantinople. And, probably because of the same claims you burned Deçan, and killed and massacred…
SERB SOLDIER: Hey…
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: . ..killed and massacred all those people… mainly old man and women and children… Do you know that the Albanians have for five centuries in a row guarded that monastery that you claim to be yours, and today you are killing the descendants of those same Albanians!
SERB SOLDIER: Hey you faggot… is this a political lecture you’re giving me, or what? Do you know that I will fuck you up and pierce holes all over you…Fucking faggot… I let you live, and you bombard me with propaganda against Serbia… You almost accused me directly of killing those poor fucks in Deçan…
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: But…
SERB SOLDIER: What ‘but’… Didn’t you just tell me that there is no war without blood!
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: But war’s have to be humane and not against old people, women and children!
SERB SOLDIER: Bla bla bla bla… You are also a humanitarian!
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: Maybe I am.
SERB SOLDIER: You are my ass… Humanitarian of the Deçani Patriarch’s dick you are… A terrorist and a humanist… Where the hell did you hear of that?
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: I am not a terrorist.
SERB SOLDIER: You’re not a terrorist?
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: No, I’m not.
SERB SOLDIER: What the fuck are you then, if you’re not a terrorist?
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: I am a…
SERB SOLDIER: Got it…really did… You’re a piece of shit… You get up to arms and fight your own state and you claim you’re not a terrorist… How on earth can that be, tell me.
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: But your state has for years committed crimes and genocide here, and everybody knows this.
SERB SOLDIER: Tell me about it!
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: You can be as ironic as you want!
SERB SOLDIER: Look at him… With a gun against the state, and complaining… Fucking asshole.
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: In fact, I am not complaining… I have it clear with me from the day when I took up arms… I became a mere number then and nothing more. The rest is destiny.
SERB SOLDIER: What is the rest?
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: Destiny…mine first of all… and then of others.
SERB SOLDIER: And mine then.
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: Yes, and yours… here we are. And you can shoot me if you’ve got the guts, you motherfucker. You think I’m afraid of you.
SERB SOLDIER: Don’t bullshit me!
ALBANIAN SOLDIER: You’ve beaten, tortured and killed us so much that we aren’t afraid of you in the least any more.
A few words about the performance:
Drama “The Kosowars”, written by Haqif Mulliqi, has been staged two times by the author. First staging was production of the Alternative Theatre Kosova (2004) whereas the second staging was production of theatre “Dodona”, theatre of the city of Prishtina. Both productions have represented Kosovo in many international festivals, such as the International Festival in Edinburg (Scotland) in 2004, where it has been performed in the category of world premieres; at the Festival of Experimental Theatre “Skampa” in Elbasan (Albania) in 2004; at the International Festival of Experimental Theatre in Cairo (Egypt) in 2005; at the Festival “Ohrid summer” Ohrid (North Macedonia) in 2005; the Biennale of the European Theatre in Braila (Rumania) in 2006; the Balkan Festival of Theatre in Strumica (North Macedonia), in 2001, etc.
The biggest success of “The Kosowars” is considered its classification in the group of the best performances during the 2004 edition of the Edinburg Festival, when a jury, consisted of artists of Scottish Theatre and the theatre critics of the newspaper “The Scotsman”, has placed this performance in the group of “The best of the best”.
Mulliqi’s drama is part of the school curricula in a number of Universities as well as part of a number of studies and PhD dissertations.
Short description:
“The Kosowars” by HAQIF MULLIQI is a play about the fate of two young Kosovans in war-torn Kosovo. Two wounded volunteers from rival armies, an Albanian and a Serbian with American citizenship, meet post-battle. The foes are forced together when both head to the same location for shelter. The broad history of the two nation living in Kosovo reveals through the remarkable play of the two actors. Moments of joy, hatred and accusations will revolve and accompany us throughout the play.