They have already gone
May 8, 2025, Heartefact House
“This play examines the position of all of us in the audience—how we understand and relate to those who survived the genocide in Srebrenica. This perspective is especially important to me as someone coming from Serbia. It is our artistic way of questioning and trying to understand the fates and consequences of the wars that took place across the former Yugoslavia. I deeply believe that without empathy and the acceptance of responsibility, there can be no lasting peace in this region. As this artistic act strips away all the big and somewhat worn-out political words we constantly hear in discourse, we attempt to live on stage the lives that are no longer with us. But we also begin to understand and feel that survival—for those who remain—is not only about the sorrow of loss, but also about a profound fear of being forgotten. Forgetting, both personally and collectively, kills. Forgetting is a punishment for the victims, and a balm for the perpetrators and for those who continue to carry criminal ideologies. You will meet Sadika, a fictional character, and her family—also fictional—whom she lost and never truly had. You’ll hear the voices of those who were never born and those who never grew up to celebrate their milestones. On her birthday, in a Dutch nursing home, Sadika becomes a grand tragic heroine, bringing back memories and hopes, preserving birthday gifts and other little things that keep her alive. She is alive, and she hopes she will never forget. Her daily routine is interrupted by Martin, who became her caregiver simply because of a shared language. Although he cannot fully comprehend Sadika’s fate, he tries to be helpful and ease her lonely final days. Azem is there—or perhaps he isn’t. Can people truly continue to live if we remember them? And what happens if we forget? In modern theater, it’s easy to imagine knights, kings, and heroes, but we rarely focus on the small, ordinary lives for whose deaths we may bear some responsibility—or who were our contemporaries, living at the same time as us, tormented by the same anxieties and fears for the future. Now, as this play is being created, we here in the Balkans are once again hearing similar voices—those who hate, who spread fear, and who deepen the consequences of a war that ended thirty years ago.» – Andrej Nosov, director
WRITTEN BY: Doruntina Basha
DIRECTED BY: Andrej Nosov
STARRING:
Mirjana Karanović,
Svetozar Cvetković and
Alban Ukaj
Maja Salkić, Davor Sabo, Kemal Rizvanović, Matea Mavrak, Hana Zrno, Sanin Milavić, Faruk Hajdarević, Alen Konjicija, Natalia Dmitrieva, Dino Hamidović
SET DESIGN: Zorana Petrov
COSTUMES: Selena Orb
MUSIC: Draško Adžić
LIGHT DESIGN: Nemanja Calić
SOUND DESIGN: Nikola Erić, Luka Cvetko
TEHNICAL CREW: Nikola Erić, Luka Cvetko, Nađa Vukorep, Nemanja Calić
SOUND RECORDING: Mirza Tahirović/Studio “Chelia”
PRODUCTION: Aleksandra Lozanović, Selena Pleskonjić, Ksenija Milutinović
DRAMATURGICAL SUPPORT: Nejra Babić Halvadžija
PHOTOGRAPHY: Nebojša Babić
VISUAL DESIGN: Ismar Žalica
ANDREJ NOSOV s a theater director. He founded and has led Heartefact since 2009. As a maker of theater, Nosov creates works based on both contemporary plays and on collaborative processes, which opens the space for unconventional language, forms, themes, and approaches in a local context. He uses directing as a way to address issues that trouble contemporary society, without abandoning their political and (po)ethical dimensions. He has directed over twenty productions and has collaborated with leading theaters and festivals across the region. Nosov is a Europe Leader with the Obama Foundation and a Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow.
DORUNTINA BASHA is a playwright and screenwriter from Pristina. She earned her master’s degree at the European Humanities University with a focus on gender studies. Her play The Finger (2011) won the Heartefact Award for Best Contemporary Socially Engaged Play and received the Golden Laurel for Best Balkan Play at the MESS Festival (2013). She won the prize Best National Drama in Talia e Flakës Festival in 2025 in Gjilan. She wrote the screenplay for the film Vera Dreams of the Sea (2021), which premiered in the Orizzonti section of the 78th Venice Film Festival. Today, she works in theater, film, and communications in both her home country and internationally.
MIRJANA KARANOVIĆ is a renowned Serbian actress, director, screenwriter, and human rights activist, Mirjana Karanović began her film career in 1980 with a leading role in Petrijin venac, for which she received numerous awards and accolades. She gained international recognition for her performance in Otac na službenom putu, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes. Her role in Jasmila Žbanić’s Grbavica earned her a nomination for the European Film Award. In 2016, she made her directorial and screenwriting debut with the film A Good Wife, and her second feature film Mother Mara released in 2024 . In addition to performing in over a hundred theater and film roles in Serbia and abroad, Mirjana Karanović is also an activist for LGBTI+ rights and the protection of survivors of sexual violence.
SVETOZAR CVETKOVIĆ is the recipient of several lifetime achievement awards in theater and film, Svetozar Cvetković is a longtime member and former director of the iconic Belgrade theater Atelje 212. Over the past 45 years, he has performed more than 70 major roles in modern theatrical repertoire, working with some of the most prominent directors from Serbia and the wider region. He has also appeared in over a hundred feature films, TV series, and television dramas. During his tenure as director of Atelje 212, he revitalized post-war connections with theaters across Southeast Europe, enabling major performance exchanges. He has received acting awards at all the major festivals in Serbia. Cvetković is a member of the European Film Academy (EFA).
ALBAN UKAJ is an actor and director, Alban Ukaj is a permanent member of the Sarajevo War Theater (SARTR). He made his film debut in Gori vatra and has since built a distinguished career with numerous film roles, awards, and nominations. For his role in Full Moon, he received the Best Actor Award at the Cottbus Film Festival in Germany. He appears in the Oscar-nominated film Quo Vadis, Aida?, and through his collaborations with the Dardenne brothers, is a two-time Cannes winner with Lorna’s Silence and Tori and Lokita. Ukaj directed the films The Horse and The Pit, and has performed in productions at the National Theatre Sarajevo, Chamber Theatre 55, Youth Theatre, BNP Zenica, and the Royal Theatre Zetski Dom, among others.
The play is a co-production of Heartefact (Serbia), Sarajevo War Theater SARTR (BiH) and My Balkans (USA, Serbia), in cooperation with La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (USA), Ibsen Scope (Norway) and Allianz Foundation (Germany).
