Dramaturg: Jeton Neziraj
Director: Blerta Neziraj
Set design: Alice VaniniCostumes: Njomza Luci
Composer: Tomor Kuçi
Choreographer: Gjergj Prevazi
Video: Besim Ugzmajli
Ass. Director: Gëzim Hasani
Art Director: Aurela Kadriu
Researcher and artistic collaborator: Agron Demi & Instituti Atlas
Actors: Armend Smajli, Verona Koxha, Shpëtim Selmani, Kushtrim Qerimi, Afrim Muçaj
Premiere: May 23, 2025 at ODA Theatre, Prishtina
About the production:
The starting point of this play is the story of a crime, which happened 25 years before, in a recently liberated Prishtina, which was then administered by the United Nations Mission in Kosovo.
According to unofficial data, over sixty percent of Albanian villages in Kosovo were burned and destroyed by the Serb army and police during the war. Therefore, when the war ended in June 1999, shelter was one of the most pressing issues for the majority of people. The United Nations Administration had no swift solution to this problem. But a ‘solution’ was offered by people from the underworld, businessmen and construction firms, who rushed to exploit this ‘fruitful terrain’ for personal profit.
A society traumatized by the war, and in an epic struggle to restore life, unwillingly became subordinate to this shadowy group that offered a housing ‘solution’. Prishtina started to grow, with buildings planted overnight, of poor construction quality, and without any kind of urban plan, or observance of building criteria. Parks were turned into construction sites; public spaces were shrunk by buildings. Small houses were demolished, and on their site, skyscrapers were planted.
At that time, and almost alone, Rexhep Luci, architect and Pristina’s head of spatial planning, tried to establish urbanism controls. But that was not a time of people who thought about the future. Rexhep Luci was threatened a number of times by people from the underworld and then, on 11 September 2000, he was killed by an unknown assailant inside the entrance to his apartment in Prishtina.
Rexhep Luci is like Ibsen’s Dr. Stockmann. Except that for his truth about Prishtina, he paid a much higher price.
Today, the issue of illegal construction in Prishtina and in Kosovo has taken on catastrophic dimensions. Construction, without plan or control, has made our cities suffocating, and public spaces, unsafe and unfriendly. “PRISHTINA. The Premeditated Killing of a Dream” address these issues on stage and invites us to rethink our relationship with, and responsibility for the city, at a time when this destructive cycle has become institutionalized and normalized.
In the 25 years since the end of the war, the city of Prishtina has transformed into a large construction site – perhaps the biggest site on the planet. A parallel, ghost city, looms over it, a threat to life and the future.
