THE CROW IN PEACOCK FEATHERS

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR

Vladimir Vučković was born in 1972 in Niš. He obtained his PhD at the Faculty of Law in Belgrade, department of national legal history. He teaches at the Academy for the National Security in Belgrade.

He published the novels: The Crow in Peacock Feathers (2017), Soul Mates (2020), The Lame (2021), End of Time (2024);

Story Collection: Turkish Trust (2013) – the St Sava Seal Award, Niš stories (2018), Zaplanje stories (2019), Stories about the lost time (2022);

Poetry Collection: Expression of the soul (2015), Black embrace (2017);

He also published poetry on the internet portal Crna Ovca (Black Sheep).

Monographic studies: Church of the Holy Ascension of the Lord in Veliki Krčimir (1169–1950), Diocese of Niš (2008) – October Award of Gadžin Han Municipality; Diocese of Niš (2011), Old Serbia and Macedonia (2014), Niš in the Second World War (2019).

The monograph Niš in the Second World War was translated into English, German, Spanish and Polish and published by the University of Saarbrucken, Germany.

Vladimir Vučković resides in Niš.

A WORD FROM THE WRITER

The novel The Crow in Peacock Feathers is another proof that all love stories are in some way sketchy, not fully told. The novel depicts a completely different, special love story – the love of Prince Milan Obrenović (king since 1882) with the ordinary but beautiful Niš woman. These are rarely inspiring situations that can be interpreted in contradictions in the storytelling, especially when it comes to the love of a ruler and an ordinary citizen.

Love is the most sacred feeling, which requires the fullness of relationships in honesty, trust, respect and responsibility.

The story is based on an event from old Niš and a woman with whom Prince Milan Obrenović was seriously in love and spoke of her as “a combination of wildness and aristocratic beauty”. It seems to many that this love is the main theme of the novel, although there is a stronger, but more hidden one – the hypocrisy of one man, an old archpriest, whose life was complicated by historical circumstances. The time of the novel is the liberation of Niš from the Turks in 1878, when a lot of important things happened. Serbia became an independent country, forced to turn to Austria and Vienna because of Russia’s dishonorable behavior regarding the creation of Greater Bulgaria.

King Milan Obrenović is one of the rulers who is most vilified and insulted by the Serbs, and he had honorable intentions. He possessed statesmanship, opened the issue of Old Serbia at the right moment and correctly understood Serbia’s interests in the South. Supported by Vienna, Austria and Europe, he tried to turn Serbian state policy in that natural direction, towards Thessaloniki and the Mediterranean, which was in conflict with the interests of Russia.

We should not forget that everything that characterizes the modern Serbian state was created by King Milan Obrenović at the end of the 19th century – from the acquisition of independence, through the most liberal constitution, to the modern army that later won famous victories in the liberation wars.

He transformed Nis from an oriental town into a modern, European city.

The conflict with the Russophile Radical Party led by former anarchists, nihilists and anarcho-socialists, Nikola Pašić and Pero Todorović, wore down King Milan.

Fate played with him even after death.

In Niš, the city he liberated and loved the most, a strange, phallus-like monument was built for him, which is supposed to symbolize a bullet.

The novel The Crow in Peacock Feathers brings the legend about that monument from Niš Fortress – girls who want to fall in love should just touch the monument with their hands, and those who want to get married should hug the “bullet”. Wishes come true, but the only condition is sincere belief in true love. At the same time, we should not lose sight of one important fact – flocks of crows are constantly circling above that monument in their own feathers, not in peacock feathers.

The legend originated from the true love story of King Milan Obrenović in Niš, described in the novel The Crow in Peacock Feathers.

Vladimir Vučković

BIOGRAPHY OF THE DIRECTOR

Director, playwright, composer, musician. Born in 1992 in Sombor. Graduated from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade in the class of prof. Egon Savin, obtained his master’s degree at the Ljubljana Academy for Theatre, Radio, Film and Television in the class of prof. Tomi Janežič.

Directed at the Serbian National Theater in Novi Sad, Belgrade Drama Theater, Sombor National Theater, Užice, Kruševac, Šabac, Subotica Theater, on the “Kult” Stage… Member of the Ljubljana performance troupe Hupa Brajdič. Worked as a lecturer at the “Lujo Davičo” Secondary Ballet School in Belgrade.

A WORD FROM THE DIRECTOR

If history played with us, in this play we played a little with history in return.

Marko Torlaković