CULTURAL WEEK

This semester’s novelty is Cultural Week, whose goal was to familiarize international
students with the culture, customs, and traditions of Serbian people. Cultural Week was
organized from the 28th of October to the 3rd of November during which we visited the
National Museum, the Museum of Yugoslavia and had organized a movie night during which
we screened a famous Serbian movie called Sky Hook.
Since we are aware of the fact that Belgrade is famous for its nightlife, we wanted to show
that our capital city has so much more to offer than just parties. Cultural Week was not a new
idea in ESN BelUPgrade. A few years ago our current Local Representative had a similar
idea, but for reasons unknown, it hasn't stuck around. Luckily our Event Coordinator had
recognized the importance and necessity of such an event.


MOVIE NIGHT: Sky Hook


We chose to show Sky Hook (Nebeska udica) because we believe it perfectly depicts the
moment of history that has shaped the identity of our nation. For those of you who don't
know, Sky Hook is a Yugoslavian movie directed by Ljubiša Samardžić in 2000. It was
Yugoslavia's submission for the 73rd Academy Award for the best foreign film. Some of our
well-known actors and actresses appear in the movie, such as Nebojša Glogovac, Nikola
Kojo, Nikola Đuričko, Katarina Zutić, and Ana Sofrenovic. The movie shows the state of
chaos within the country during the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. The story follows a
group of young people who try to rebuild an old basketball court in order to escape cruel
reality and defy the violence.


MUSEUM OF YUGOSLAVIA


Visiting the Museum of Yugoslavia was a perfect chance to get to know the history of Serbia
a bit better and to understand what has happened in the Balkan region. Yugoslavia was a
country in the south-eastern part of Europe from 1929 to 2003. After World War 1, the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes was established, but the name was changed to
Yugoslavia in 1929 in order to emphasize the unity and South Slavic origin of these nations.
After it's turbulent history, Yugoslavia officially stopped existing in 2003. The Museum of
Yugoslavia has three buildings. Unfortunately, the Museum of The 25th of May is under
reconstruction, so we only visited the House of flowers and the Museum of Yugoslavia. The
House of flowers was a formal winter garden of Yugoslavia's life-long president Josip Broz
Tito. Now, it's a place where Tito and his wife Jovanka were buried. During our tour, we saw
some of the presents that Tito had received both from the people of Yugoslavia and foreign
statesmen.


NATIONAL MUSEUM


Recently reopened, the National Museum is a treasury that stores the masterpieces both from
Serbian and world artists. The museum's layout spans a huge chronological range from the far

Paleolithic to the 20th-century art. The exhibition is spread over 5000 m 2 of exhibition space
in a three-story building in the center of Belgrade. As we wandered through the museum we
learned more about Serbia's rich history while we were admiring impressive art pieces.