When Legends Leave

It could have been 2005, when still a student, I had passed the initial phase of journalism and was trying to consolidate myself in the profession I had entered.

In that period, the printed newspaper occupied the country, perhaps principal, of public information in Kosovo.

As much as it seemed, “The new age” was extremely solid in the space it provided to young students or journalists to take the first steps on this note, whether in space within its pages, for articles of different content, by authors of various profiles.

With a weekly feature, the newspaper had also become an artist, Adem Mikulovz.

Our new “Colegu” brought to readers each week from a text, an imaginary conversation with different personalities of public life in Kosovo, and especially figures of national history.

Hasan Pristina, Shote Galica, Bajram Curri, may have been some of Adem Mikulovci's co-ordinators, who, through this kind of conversation, spread but also bit the political current in Kosovo at the time.

The baca Adam himself brought the texts on paper, written in a typewriter. It was our duty to write on our computer to make them available for publication.

During those brief stays in the editorials, we tried to use his presence for some sort of regular conversation.

It was at this time that a serial comedide had begun to appear, in which he himself, as in many eyes, was simultaneously screenwriter, director and actor.

Comments about the series were inevitable.

“Allahil, what do you think?”, asked us after a few comments about the first episodes.

Very good serial, having”

That's good. Just knowing what a war-motivate scenario I sent... But no, they don't. They tell me: Adam's baca, the people are in pain, the wounds of war are still fresh, so let's not molest them. Write down something that makes people laugh. All right, I told you. That's what you want, that's how I do it to you”

It was a mild version of Lasgush Poradeci's response when he was asked to write a poem about the tractor.

It was a time when Kosovo's main power was held by the international administration and Kosovo's public opinion was bombarded daily, in all forms and with all means, with the message “to leave the past behind and look towards the future”.

Of course, under such circumstances, Adam Miculovz too had to prepare and serve what the market required. So, comedy.

It's said that it's harder to make the public laugh than to cry. That, therefore, was no easy task for her, no matter how subtle her master she was.

We had grown up with his humorary snares, as well as with films of special emotional content, through which he perpetuated the suffering of the people under captivity. Scenic art critics can give the most accurate interpretation, however, to be original, as in comedy, as well as in film-drame with such motives, you must possess rare qualities and fine artistic masters.

This shift of roles, without violating any of their originals, lists Adem Mikulovz among artists who can count on one hand's fingers.

The performance of Adem Mikulovci and Leze Dog in Kosovo, of Richard Ljarja and Dzevdet Ferri, in Albania, makes 2020 ominous for the Albanian film and theatre stage.

Among the latter of the pleade they represent, they will leave behind the lack of artists who raised Albanian art and culture to the highest levels, while in the public, the emptiness of the highly beloved and rare performing roles and characters.