STORY: 12th World Literature Festival held in Croatia
SHOOTING TIME: Sept. 4, 2024
DATELINE: Sept. 5, 2024
LENGTH: 0:04:13
LOCATION: Zagreb
CATEGORY: CULTURE

SHOTLIST:
1. various of the festival venues in Zagreb and people attending the festival
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (English): SEID SERDAREVIC, Creative Director of the festival
3. various of the audience
4. SOUNDBITE 2 (English): SEID SERDAREVIC, Creative Director of the festival
5. various of a discussion with Faruh Sehic, a writer from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH)
6. various of a discussion with Slovenian writer Dusan Sarotar and Croatian writer Marko Gregur
7. various of Dusan Sarotar speaking
8. various of Marko Gregur speaking
9. SOUNDBITE 3 (English): SEID SERDAREVIC, Creative Director of the festival
10. various of a book stand
11. SOUNDBITE 4 (English): SEID SERDAREVIC, Creative Director of the festival

STORYLINE:

The World Literature Festival, the most important literary festival in Croatia, is being held in Zagreb, featuring some of the biggest names on the literary scene.

This is the 12th festival edition organized by the Croatian publishing house Fraktura. The festival, from Sept. 1-7, aims to bring together the best of local and international literature and provide an opportunity for the audience to interact with contemporary writers.

SOUNDBITE 1 (English): SEID SERDAREVIC, Creative Director of the festival
"Festival of the World Literature is one of the biggest festivals in the region, including authors from 17 countries, and more than 50 authors altogether, 45 literary events, but also some exhibitions, art exhibitions, like a free art exhibition, and it takes place in four places in Zagreb."

The events at the festival are moderated by some of the most prominent Croatian literary figures, including leading editors, writers, and critics. These experts guide the discussions, adding depth and insight to each session. The festival is quite popular and most events are filled.

SOUNDBITE 2 (English): SEID SERDAREVIC, Creative Director of the festival
"I think people love that we have really intense and very serious conversation about the books. So we are not the festival who put some other things in the center. The center is the author and his (her) work. So I think that is why the people love to come here. They have an opportunity to be in very close relationship with the author, and all moderators are very well prepared, and all events are with simultaneous translation."

This year, the biggest stars of the festival are Paolo Giordano from Italy, British authors Yomi Adegoke and Matthew Blake, French author Jean-Baptiste Del Amo, Johanna Mo from Sweden, and others.

SOUNDBITE 3 (English): SEID SERDAREVIC, Creative Director of the festival
"We are living in a very anxious world with several wars, with the world after pandemic, with a lot of threats that we have. And that is something that is good for the literature. Literature is always the best when it needs to go deep into human emotion, big human emotions. And we have real authors who are deeply into human emotions about the relationship between humans, men and women, men and men, father and son's relationship, all that kind of relationship. So we can tell that the literature always has the same themes. But on the other hand, how they are told, and what they could tell us in our contemporary moment, that is why the literature is always important."

Two themes are the focus of the 12th edition of the festival: the climate change and strong women. Serdarevic says that he would like to see in the future authors from China and Asia at the festival. However, there are not many translated books in Croatia.

SOUNDBITE 4 (English): SEID SERDAREVIC, Creative Director of the festival
"Somehow the biggest problem is that we do not have enough translators from Chinese into Croatian. And one of the things that we want to have, is that the book is translated into Croatian. So I certainly hope that the University of Zagreb and others, so that we will produce more literary translators, and that we have more open space for literature, not only from China, but from the Far East."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Zagreb.
(XHTV)