Night with Alex

"Night with Aleks" is a true biographical drama. It shows the character of Alekse Šantić, more precisely, his last days. Creating the character of a poet, a fifty-six-year-old suffering from tuberculosis and, according to rumors, from syphilis, Marko Tomaš makes extensive use of flashbacks. Opening the floodgates of memories, the old poet meets his own alter-ego in the character of Aleksa K.

The drama provides a wealth of biographical information about the great Mostar poet. In it, we can recognize the story of the breakup of the Šantić family. The last phantasmagoric scene between Aleksa and her mother Mara refers to the "well-known" mother's curse. The mother did not allow the poet to marry a girl of the Catholic faith. This is further emphasized in the scene where Šantić meets his friend, the dead poet Osman Đikić, in a dream, who escaped such a fate and happily married a bride "from another tribe" that he sang about in the famous song "Đaurko mila" which became a cult sevdalinka, and for that purpose was integrated into the drama. Šantić spends his last days in the Ćorović house with his sister Radojka - Persa, whom Tomaš transforms into a powerful protective figure who, in a charismatic monologue, close to the tone of tragedy, describes the curses and the vicious circle in which individuals unhappily dependent on their ethnic community move.�