ARTIST AND MODEL: Gojko Mitić,...
A dry province in the north of Germany. House to house, villa to villa, everything clean. Calm, sleepy. It is the small town of Bad Zegeberg, near Hamburg, known in Germany, in the world and on the planet only in summer, when Cowboys and Indians fight here on the summer stage and proud Vinetto (Gojko Mitić) explains the meaning of life to the White Man.
Then, when Gojko masterfully rides down from the Krečno Brdo hill into the Arena, the audience screams with excitement, stomps their feet in ecstasy, waiting for Gojko, the First Indian of Germany to greet the audience:
"Haug!"
...Vinet
"Haaaauuug", rings from eight thousand throats, while the German sun sets behind the Indian wigwams made in Germany.
VICTIM KARLA MAYA: But now it's April, it looks like winter painted sparingly in green, the northern winds are swirling over our heads, Gojko and I are clucking slowly on the benches of the big Arena. Gojko's horse is rehearsing the "role" down on the stage and "waving" to him as we speak.
"That's my horse." I get a new one every five years. And only once, in all 14 years, did I fall off a horse. It happens."
Preparations are currently being made in Bad Zegeberg for this year's show, Gojko's last performance. Then, after 15 years, Vineta will go to Eternal Hunting, and Gojko will start life for the first time after 40 years without a long hair wig and an Indian leather suit...
"In this beautiful theater, I am playing Vinetu, under the open sky, the sand crunches under my feet, the sun, when it is there, casts shadows and hits my head... 7000-8000 spectators... and that twice a day... one feels as if one is in a stadium, and not in the theater arena. Fourteen years already. Actually, a couple of years ago I wanted to finish that story, then I turned sixty, so I was thinking of stopping, and then the manager said to me: 'As long as you can jump from a seat to a horse, you can play.' So I stayed. Until now. But I'm still sorry. Especially my audience. They carry me. For them I am Vinetu. The real one."
That horse is still "waving" at him, Gojko continues:
"I am a victim of Karl May... No, I'm joking." I tried to 'change' the writer a bit, to add something to him. I wrote monologues for Winnetua and borrowed the true words, which the Indian chiefs actually said. So, my Vinetu is more combative and truer than the original. I see people listening to what I say. He touches them. Here they feel justice, which does not exist in the real world. I play Vinetu with a little mime, with a lowered voice. I don't have many opportunities to vary the role - riding and acting is not easy. And I see that the audience accepted that Vinetu, the way I designed it. But it didn't bring fame to Vineta. Vinetu is a story for West Germans. Before that, there are a number of films, made in the GDR, about Indian chiefs, who really existed. The roots of those films are historical. Whether it's Tecumseh, Osceola, Ulcana, we filmed their life stories."
INDIAN IZ LESKOVCA: Gojko Mitić was born in Leskovac 65 years ago (birthday in June). In his biography on the Internet, it is written "from father Živojin, who was engaged in agriculture, and mother Timka".
Gojko spent his childhood in the countryside, and his father in the partisans. Young, handsome and athletically built, he comes to Belgrade to study. He studies sports at DIF, supports himself as an extra in powerful films, filmed at that time in Yugoslavia (Roman girls, Venetian catacombs, Uncle Tomina hut), is finishing his studies.
Everyone wants Gojko: the English, the Italians, and especially the West Germans who, since 1960, have been making films from Plitvice to Trebinje based on the works of Karl May. In 1963, he got his first episodic role, appearing in a forspan, called "Georg Mitic". It sounds better.
East Germans are also preparing films about Indians. But Karl May, although the famous writer was born in the east of Germany, already politically connoted stories about the suffering of real Indians during the conquest of America. Sons Great Little bears, Gojko's first film, breaks all records. And he opens a path that brings him unprecedented fame: every year he makes a film about the fate of the Indians, every year he plays the main role, but by order of the Party he is dubbed, even though he speaks excellent German: so that no one thinks that Gojko's accent is disparaging the Indians...
He is the star of the people, but the critics also love him: "Mitic's Tekum-Ze is dignified, sensitive, his acting expression is strong." He not only rides well and looks good, his face is transparent, his eyes glaze over, when it comes to the feelings of the chief."
He made his last "Indian" film in 1975, followed by films of another genre, proving himself as a "real" actor, directing films, writing scripts. But "Indian" films remain unmatched. Gojko's chieftains become a cult, Indians are an infection in the GDR.
SHOW: On the summer stage in the town of Bad Zegeberg
"Those films contributed to the fact that Germans from the GDR went crazy for Indians," says Gojko, "they founded Indian villages, festivals, summer universities. They dressed like Indians, lived in wigwams... But those films must have been a kind of valve. In the cinema, there was no Berlin Wall, there were no borders, the world was big and close, and justice was huge. I already lived in East Berlin, but I was sorry that none of my friends and comrades were allowed to travel. I often went to West Berlin to bring one of them something from the West or to visit his relatives. If I look at life in the East of Germany today and life in the former GDR, I see that a lot has not changed for the better. Yes, there was no travel, people in the GDR were poor, but they had social security, lots of friends and socializing among themselves. Today they have all the freedoms, but they have no money, no work. That's the problem. Today, they feel that no one wants them. A large number of companies disappeared, went bankrupt, and I can't shake the impression that the West Germans were looking for consumers in the East, and got surplus labor. And how are you going to spend when you have no money in your pocket? This is where these Westerners made a little mistake. And especially when I think of the arrogance of German politicians... As if this nation is worth less..."
LESSONS IZ HISTORIES: Gojko's fame spreads to the east. The films are shown all over the communist world.
From Prague to Beijing. Son of the Great Bear travels the world, at least one part of the world.
"I was one day in a Chinese restaurant in Berlin having lunch, and the waiter looks at me, asks for my autograph, says: 'I watched you in Vietnam.' I was positively speechless."
For thirteen years, there has been the "youngest Karl May festival", in which children from six to twelve years old play. The festival takes place in the small town of Bischofswerda, near Dresden. German unification seems to have left no traces here, there is high unemployment. The festival was founded by a local school teacher, and the children asked Gojko to "borrow" his name, so the festival is called "Gojko Mitić".
"I immediately agreed." That is what is important in such a place without a future: children need to be taken off the streets, directed. And when I see them with what commitment those children play, then my heart is full. That's why these movies are important to me. So that the children, while playing, can be Indians a little, and not just cowboys, to learn something from history, and not to get a picture of history, which was written by the winner."
We are sitting in a theater restaurant in windy Bad Zegeberg, it is warmer. I light a cigarette. And now something else, I say to Gojko. "Just one more thing to tell you," he interrupts me:
"I was with real Indians on the reservation." We were making a documentary film about that visit, I had a great honor. They took me in as a brother. They even invited me to perform a ritual cleansing of soul and body with them, which is performed in a type of sauna. It is actually a wigwam made of willow trees that are planted around and when they grow enough they are fresh on top. This is how a circle is formed in which a fire is lit, stones are heated until glowing, water is poured on those stones and there one sweats and smokes the pipe of peace. A huge honor! Well, there I also had to smoke a peace pipe, which was not really something great, considering that I am a non-smoker. That's why I always tell that story, when someone catches fire."
I continue again, where I left off.
I say: Gojko, all the cities that brought you fame begin with the letter B: Belgrade, Berlin, Bad Zegeberg.
"Yes, but the most important B-city is Berlin for sure. That's where I put down roots, quite deep. I have my house on the water and when I'm there, I really feel good there, it's my present. Although I was born in Yugoslavia. I still say Yugoslavia, I don't know what else to say. Ah, I'm at a loss for words, I haven't spoken 'our way' for a long time... Unfortunately, my contacts with Leskovac are rare. Once a year I visit my brother, I remember my childhood, but then I continue to Greece, where I spend my annual vacation. After a busy summer and Vinetu, it is important for me to rest. However, having performances three days a week, two performances a day for almost two whole months, is quite tiring. Because this arena is not only looking for an actor, but also an athlete."
And almost quietly he adds:
"I don't know why they love me so much." I was just doing my job conscientiously. Even today, those fans of my films do not hesitate to travel 800 kilometers to come to Bad Zegeberg, just to meet me. I see how their eyes glaze over when they see me, it's an incredible experience, when you see those people who came just for you. I feel like I really gave something to those people."
Are the Jugovics coming?
"I hear them in the audience." He mumbles 'Gooooojkoooo', then they come and pat me. It doesn't matter where they come from. They are all our people, regardless of the new borders."
I say: Gojko, you look like a little boy and your 65th birthday is coming up in a few days.
"It's just a date." I'm active, I'm flexible, I ski, dive, ride a bike in Berlin. Mobility keeps me going. And after all, I don't have time to grow old."
Haug, Gojko, I say and think of what else I forgot to ask, looking at the sea of papers I took out from the Internet, where there are about 800 pages - only about Gojko.
And a sea of pictures and over 50.000 visitors to his fan-run website (www.goiter.de) and the possibility to put photos on the desktop, Gojko hears live, and where he writes what he likes to eat (lamb with garlic), which animals he likes (horses, of course), that he is 180 centimeters tall and weighs 80 kilograms, that his the eyes are black, and the hair is black and slightly streaked with gray hair.
Well, that's all about the man from Leskovac whom Serbia doesn't know that Germany adores him, that he is famous in the world, and maybe even on the planet. The first retrospective of Gojko's films in Serbia is being shown until Sunday at the Cinematheque in Belgrade. It was organized by the Goethe Institute and the Cinematheque. But without Gojko head and chin.
No one invited him.
Damage.
