LEICA FORMAT

Daša Drndić

Writing about Rijeka “from without” and “from within,” Daša Drndić constantly reexamines the connection between the person and the city: do the citizens of this city speak the same language and use the same words when describing the world around them? Do we recognize the “real” citizens of a city by their language, or does recognition depend on other factors that in some cases give the impression that the person across from us simply doesn’t belong anywhere? What if that person is a foreigner, a woman who comes to Rijeka immediately after the war and uses the Serbian word for “green beans?” After all, how does this city live with people who haven’t been introduced to the tapestry of pure language, a pure city, a pure nation? The play Leica Format encourages us to recognize the sadness and comedy, as well as banality and violence that lurk with us as we walk through “our” city. It leads us to confront the everyday chauvinism which we try to justify and call by other names.

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