Damir Karakaš

"A time of polarization, a time when we were called upon to inhale the air of the nation, a time when it mattered who belonged to which ethnic group. But our hero wants to belong to his own, special, rockabilly nation, founded on music, freedom, the freedom of the spirit, the freedom to decide, to choose his clothes, his hairstyle. . ."-Boris Liješevic, theatre director of 'Blue Moon', the playCarli left his mountain village and his past to study agronomy in Zagreb. Failing miserably his commitment to most endeavours is falling into question. Nobody, however, can surpass the time he spends on his hair and his music. Most days Carli whiles away the hours grooming his pompadour. Even crossing the street, he pays attention to the direction of the wind so that his quiff, his pride and joy, is not displaced. And most evenings he spends with friends in the city's underground clubs from which the sound of rockabilly music echoes through cobbled streets and into the night. When he meets the red-haired Eli, a street-smart city girl, Carli is thunderstruck, and an unlikely relationship begins. Eli quotes the lyrics of Leonard Cohen and has little time for rockabilly music. She is an A-student, competent. When news of impending fatherhood sparks an existential crisis, Eli is there to keep him from the precipice. However, the ominous signs of Yugoslavia's instability become more apparent as Carli's downward spiral intensifies. Sinister figures from past decades return to manufacture discontent and the facade of peaceful co-existence begins to crack under the weight of history until a precise moment of witness when the future of a generation and of a country comes to a thunderous halt. "This story about the disappearance and transformation of the Serbs of Zagreb-a story that the scoundrels would never dare tell, even if Blue Moon were awarded every Croatian literary prize-has been told with unusual care, touching attention and a sense of responsibility; the responsibility of a writer for a story that must be told, no matter the price for telling it."-Miljenko Jergovic