WORLD NEWS FOR MONTENEGRO DIASPORA
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Author: M.J. Gdnus
Serbian writer and professor Filip David passed away today after a long and serious illness, it has been confirmed to N1.
Filip David was born in 1940 in Kragujevac.
He was a Jewish-Serbian writer, essayist, playwright, screenwriter, long-time editor of the Drama Program at Television Belgrade, full professor of dramaturgy at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, and a founding member of the Association for Culture, Arts, and International Cooperation Adligat, within which he actively contributed for nearly two decades to the creation of the Museum of Books and Travel and the Museum of Serbian Literature.
During World War II, David and his mother hid near Fruška Gora, while most of his father's relatives perished in the Sajmište and Jasenovac concentration camps.
He showed a talent for writing from an early age, winning about twenty awards as a primary and high school student.
He graduated in Yugoslav and world literature at the Faculty of Philology and in dramaturgy at the Academy for Theatre, Film, Radio, and Television in Belgrade.
David was one of the founders of the Independent Writers Association (1989) and the Belgrade Circle (1990) – a group of prominent, independent intellectuals. He was also a co-founder of the independent literary association Forum of Writers.
He wrote numerous TV dramas and film scripts.
His published collections of short stories include "The Well in the Dark Forest," "Notes on the Real and Unreal," and "The Prince of Fire," while his novels include "Pilgrims of Heaven and Earth," "A Dream of Love and Death," and "The House of Memories and Oblivion."
He also published essay collections such as "Fragments from Dark Times," "Are We Monsters?" and "Worlds in Chaos."
Together with Mirko Kovač, he published The Book of Letters 1992–1995.
He received many literary awards, including the Mladost Award, Milan Rakić Award, BIGZ and Prosveta awards for Best Book of the Year, as well as the NIN and Andrić Awards.
In the Museum of Serbian Literature, he curated a personal collection featuring his typewriter, personal items, and books with dedications.
Filip David is considered one of the most important intellectuals and writers of the past decades.
His works have been translated into Swedish, French, Polish, Hungarian, Italian, Albanian, Esperanto, Macedonian, Slovenian, and Hebrew, and his short stories appear in about twenty anthologies.
As a screenwriter and dramaturge, he worked on films such as "Occupation in 26 Pictures," "The Fall of Italy," "Who's Singing Over There?", "Cabaret Balkan," "Special Treatment," "Pavilion 6," "A Midwinter Night's Dream," "Optimists," and others.
