The program of the second festival day of the 10th International Literary Festival "Pro-Za Balkans", on September 19, included a round table in which all the guests of the festival participated, the new collection of poems "Polygraph" by Pjan Slavej was promoted, and the conversation also attracted a lot of attention. with director and screenwriter Rajko Grlic.

– Doubt is the basis of writing. There were periods in which predominantly politics interfered with literature, because the political structures wanted to be present, and then came modern times in which it seems to me that literature is pushed into politics. I believe that literature is an oasis that should preserve art from politics. Of course, I distinguish the political engagement of writers and every creator, but let's not allow literature to turn into a field of political freedom. Freedom exists in the writer's head. Somehow I am not convinced that there is such a general freedom, we have to fight for it terribly every day, but the job of the writer is to do it with good books - said the writer and publisher Vladislav Bajac at the round table on the topic "Literature/Society/ criticism (literature and critical re-reading of social processes)" was held in "Europe House" Skopje, within the 10th edition of the "Pro-Za Balkans" festival.

The round table was opened by the founder of the festival, Dejan Trajkoski, who announced a large and extensive topic that can be considered from many aspects, one of which is freedom. The round table was attended by all the guests of the festival - writers, as well as literary agents, editors who are part of the "Skopje Fellowship" program.

Asked by moderator Vladimir Jankovski in the context of freedom, Croatian writer Damir Karakaš said that every writer must say what his books are about, so he would say they are about freedom and justice, and added:

- But I think we underestimated the role of readers, which is very important, because just as there are good and bad writers, there are good and bad readers. A good reader can turn a mediocre novel into a great novel, and a bad reader can ruin it. The reason we have less and less good readers is because of the education system, as well as the new media that have appeared. What used to be bibles are now iPhones. Everything has become slow, slow for people, and the advantage of literature is precisely in its slowness.

Katja Katz, a publisher of children's books from Slovenia, followed up on the attitude towards the readership and building the readers' attitude towards the book, who said that literature today must compete with other media that are more important and more accessible to children.

Regarding the kind of literature that the French giant "Gallimar" offers to its readers, Oror Tuja emphasized that after 91 years the Macedonian language entered the list of "Gallimar" for the first time and she is happy that she succeeded in this through the publication of the book "My Husband" on Rumena Buzharovska.

When asked what foreign publishers are looking for from an author coming from Turkey, Pelin Yilmaz from the publishing house "Epsilon", which offers Turkish authors to the international literary market, said: "It is easier for me to work with Arab countries because of closer relations. In European countries, they also want to buy the culture, the illustrations of the book, not only the text."

The Bulgarian writer Elena Aleksieva said that apart from the readers, we should turn and look at the writers as well. On the one hand, literature is pushed to the margins, and on the other hand, this is perhaps because it is irrelevant, that is, it does not say anything relevant about the world and society that surrounds us.

The Slovenian author Bronja Jakelj, on the other hand, in her address enigmatic topic how certain topics from the society are set aside and create in the individual or entire groups a specific attitude towards certain phenomena or occurrences, which can be a creative incentive for creating good literature.

The forum was rounded off by Tomislav Osmanli, who emphasized that the world is very stubborn and stubborn and that authors cannot change it, but they can change the world and the consciousness of a part of their readership. He sees salvation from the alienated world in which we live only in the factualism of literature.

In the evening hours of the second festival day, a conversation between Aleksandar Prokopiev and director Rajko Grlic took place in the "Bukva" cafe-bookstore. Croatian director Rajko Grlic referred to the period of filming the film "Karaula" (2004), in which Macedonia was one of the co-producing countries. It was the first film that the former member states of Yugoslavia made after its breakup.

– When you write a screenplay, it has its own rules and everything you see on the screen should be written in the text. Not so with literature. I've been writing screenplays all my life and I don't consider myself a writer. Untold Stories is more of a book of notes to me. But the genre doesn't matter either. It's a category Americans invented to categorize their movies in theaters. I was lucky enough to have the freedom to choose what I would do with each subsequent film. I learned from masters of the film - Dusan Makavejev, Aleksandar Petrovic, Zika Pavlovic... At that time when some films started to be banned, a tragedy of a culture happened. Making a movie is not an easy job. In our time, festivals were a kind of condition for us to be able to convince them at home that our film should be shown in cinemas. Today, I have the feeling that the authors do not care about the audience, but only the festivals - Grlić said.

Actor Petar Arsovski, who plays in the film "Karaula", shared his memories of the filming period and working with Grlic. He read excerpts from Grlic's Untold Stories.

The evening ended with a musical performance by Pijan Slavej and the promotion of his third poetry book "Polygraph", published by "Prozart Media". Pijan Slavej together with Gotse Jovanovski made the evening special.