Series White ship it was recorded and broadcast on RTS from 2006 to 2012. This masterpiece of Sinisa Pavić or, perhaps it is more correct to say, his testamentary work, is being rebroadcast these days on "Informer" television. In short, we watch Srećko Šojić and Dimitri Pantić on television, which has become almost the official mouthpiece of Aleksandar Vučić, his loudest and harshest political megaphone, which is the first to announce the intentions and subconscious fantasies of the authorities without any ethical or professional restrictions.
White ship is the continuation of the popular film series Tight skin, from where the main characters were transferred, and socialist self-management and its populist demagoguery were replaced by a multi-party transitional reality. Nikola Simić was allegedly replaced by Petar Kralj right before the start of filming in the role of retired junior officer Dimitrije Pantić. So the main character actually became that primitive thieving director who dreamed of being the "captain of the white ship". His name is Srećko Šojić, he continued to be played by the bravura Milan Lane Gutović.
The series was created when Milošević was deposed and Zoran Đinđić was killed. Its end coincides with the arrival of disguised radicals in the costume of the pro-European Serbian Progressive Party. Symbolically or not, Lane Gutović left the series explaining that it would be disgusting to play Šojić, who would certainly become a minister and start negotiations on "Euro-Afro-NATO integration". In fact, Pavić just missed the deadline, because Šojić would forever open chapters and clusters of negotiations, be the first vice president and not long after that the prime minister and, perhaps, the president of Serbia. The broadcast of the series, which satirically mirrors today's Serbian political elite, along with the fact that Gutović spoke very openly and critically against Vučić, could be understood in a variety of ways.
In an ideal case, "Informer" would try to critically review his own position, laugh at himself, political manipulation, political primitivism, the absence of any principle and morality, with abundant use of national myths, religion and tradition to cover up his own incompetence. Each of Šojić's lines seems to have been copied from the statements of Aleksandar Vučić, with the appearance of the mafia, tycoons, party financiers, foreign embassies and their domestic collaborators.
Šojić eats roast, sits in a pub with dubious characters, is followed by debts from the past, is an absolute narcissist and autocrat, he is the new elite from Dedinje, he goes through media training while he despises those who vote for him, and Micika - the love of his youth - dreams even today of "blowing his flute". The media make fun of him, but he turns every blam into a media attraction, the people demonstrate against him, but he survives. He also uses the services of a prophetess and a money tycoon, while he accidentally shoots a foreign ambassador in the ass during a diplomatic hunt. He despises strangers, but he fears them when necessary.
Šojić is constantly surprised and offended, and instead of a horse's head, which is a political synonym for state tabloids and their depictions, the leitmotif White ships are crocodiles who, as we know, shed crocodile tears and can never become herbivores. This metaphor is especially pronounced today because someone believed that the redressed radicals from the nineties, when they come to power, will become pro-European vegetarian crocodiles. Today, it could also be humanoid robots playing rounds.
However, White ship on "Informer" is not a form of questioning one's own role, nor self-criticism, but proof that the media in Serbia, just like the ruling elite, are Srećko Šojić. To make matters worse, he went from being a petty fraudster in socialism to a big fraudster during the transition, he gained social status and brandished capital, but he has an insatiable hunger for recognition. Šojić wants to go down in history, as the absolute master, the measure of all things, King Ibi, Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Tito...
Going to the EU Summit - Western Balkans in Tivat showed how it is White ship for domestic use only - as soon as he leaves the environment he completely controls, Vučić starts behaving like Srećko Šojić. So, dramatic, hysterical and comical. He wants to bring his supporters to the meeting with the EU officials, who were beaten by the people in the series, while Vučić calls them "athletes".
He promises that we will do everything, adopt laws "even though they are stupid", and at a meeting with EU representatives or in front of journalists, he says that China is great, but it is not a member of the EU. He hates Croats, he hates Montenegrins, I'm sorry, he loves them more than they love us. He brags about the freedom of the media while insulting journalists in the almost endemic behavior of a petty dictator. During that time, his "Informer" will bring "news" on the front pages of how the Croatian Prime Minister is urinating on Montenegrins.
But in the end, I have to share a strange feeling I had while watching Vučić's hysterics in Tivat. I felt shame, an irrational transfer of blame, especially if we take into account that this is who knows how many times Aleksandar Vučić, like Šojić, will embarrass and embarrass us all over the world, while his tabloids portray it as a triumph of wisdom and heavenly justice.
A much smaller problem than Vučić's blaming around the world is that many will look at Serbia through the behavior and statements of its current president. Serbia is not Šojić's white ship with crocodiles standing on its prow, it is incomparably more and better than what you saw and heard in Tivat. In fact, Serbia is the disenfranchised, disgraced, discredited retired junior officer Dimitrija Pantić, whose family is trying to make ends meet. This character is in The white boat slowly melted and eventually disappeared from the small screen, just like any decent and honest man. He escapes from reality by pretending to be crazy or demented.
Just imagine how desperate Siniša Pavić or Lana Gutović would be if they saw their names and characters on "Informer", while Srećko Šojić would read their obituary, speedily, of course, because the public celebration begins, a stripper played by Iva Štrljić arrives and Špic brings a hot roast.
Cheers!
