I was part of the drama section, I played for the amateur theatre Roma in Pristina, we traveled in the then-Yugoslav country, went to festivals, and I tried to give my contribution and to find refuge from that reality in the world of theatre, acting, so that we can transform {moves his hands} and become other characters. What I appreciated back then was the effort invested in putting a smile by means of comedy on people’s faces who come to the theatre, because, and I return to that, at that time life was hard, especially here, we had constant migrations, we had people who lived in difficult economic conditions, we had conflicts […]
At the time, we did the play in Romani language. We had two families {gathers his hands}, you know we took the entire concept of ‘Romeo and Juliet’, their conflict, but all of this we did through the lens of Roma life. Through Roma lens, through that, if I may say class struggle, economic class struggle inside, inside, inside Roma society. In the end, even Shakespeare in his oeuvre has depicted class struggles, conflict regarding wealth, power, love.
Gazmen Salijević was born in 1981 in Gračanica, Kosovo. Mr. Salijević holds a university degree in Public Relations and Journalism, and has received training in various areas, including human rights, community advocacy, youth policy and intercultural awareness. Since 1999, he has been actively involved in civil society, non-governmental and intergovernmental organizations working in the areas of minority rights, human rights, youth support and humanitarian aid. Currently, he lives with his family in Gračanica and works for the European Centre for Minority Issues Kosovo.