‘Ciganin, ali najljepši’ arrives at the 11th Weekend Media Festival

From Saint Martin on the Mura to the grand stage of the Zagreb HNK, from gold medals on the tatami to the greatest literary awards, from an anonymous boy from Međimurje to the list of school reading – this is the journey that Kristian Novak has taken in just over a decade. The obstacles he had to overcome along the way, as well as the wishes he might still fulfill, the biggest star of Croatian literature will reveal at the 11th Weekend Media Festival this September in Rovinj.

The great success of his novels ‘Črna mati zemla’ and ‘Ciganin, ali najljepši’, and their adaptations on the stages of ZKM and HNK, have exposed Novak to immense public interest, as rarely seen with any writer in recent years. Along with praise and awards, there have also been criticisms, even below-the-belt punches, which Novak, as a former top karateka, handles quite well.

– Me, a star? Good joke. But yes, for the last two years I have been observing this buzz that doesn’t fade and I am slowly becoming aware of the interest in my novels and the themes they open up. I do not shy away from controversy, although I would prefer if we all stuck more to the facts and less to passionate accusations. That is why I gladly agreed to come to the Weekend Media Festival, because I heard it is a place where smart and creative people discuss topics that concern all of us reasonably and culturally. I look forward to coming, I am ready for tricky questions, and I will strive to ensure my answers are up to par, says Kristian Novak.

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Among the many themes that Novak’s novels open up, there is certainly the role of the Međimurje homeland and dialect, the relationship of a guest worker’s child towards different cultures, and the choice of Rijeka as a professional refuge. In Rovinj, we will also learn how Novak views his works in school reading and whether that is important to him at all, as well as how he copes with fame and whether he perceives it as the trivialization of serious literary work. His experience working on the script for ‘Črnu mati’ with Eva Svenstedt Ward, who is known in the film world for adapting Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, will also be interesting.

– The success of Kristian Novak is proof that even in this era of new media, traditional artistic forms, such as literature and theater, can indeed be socially relevant. Weekend has opened broader social topics in previous years, and the issues that Kristian writes about so strikingly are certainly questions that will intrigue the participants of our festival, emphasizes program director Nikola Vrdoljak.

The largest regional communication festival will be held this year from September 20 to 23, as always in the former tobacco factory in Rovinj, with France and Germany as partners. All marketers can submit their works to the seventh BalCannes, and the best digital works in the region will again be presented by the most important digital award SoMo Borac.