TROUBLE IN PARADISE

Re: “From the Ashes of a Ravaged Land” (by Kristine McKenna, Feb. 26):

Let’s see if I got this lesson on former Yugoslavia right: It was a communist paradise, where everybody was wealthy and happy and you could sleep in a park without fear of mugging. Then all of a sudden militant separatists fooled ordinary folk into believing they should break into separate countries, Muslims were pitted against Christians, and presto! a war! And not only have tens of thousands died, but worse yet, a “fantastic” communist actor with “big heart” (director Milcho Manchevski’s words) is inconvenienced, first by the new multi-party democracies and then the annoying side effects of the war, so much so that he has to relocate to London.

It must be terrible for poor Rade Serbedzija to live in the capitalist West after the good life in communist Yugoslavia. And for him, it was a good life indeed. Throughout his long career as what was known as “the regime actor,” he’s had the first pick of every project in Yugoslavia, regardless of his suitability for the role or his ability to perform. His 1974 Hamlet may have been “legendary” to Manchevski, but his later performances were often slurred embarrassments that would have gotten him fired in, say, Los Angeles or London. Fortunately for Rade, in communism “the state cared about the people” and saw to it that its loyals never go unemployed.

I wonder what Serbedzija was protesting in London--Serbia’s invasion of its neighbors and the ethnic cleansing of all non-Serbs, or the demise of communism and his “wonderful life”?

As a native and longtime citizen of former Yugoslavia, I hope The Times will stop misinforming the American public about that part of the world. By all means, promote foreign filmmakers and Academy Award nominees, but do not use the guise of movie articles to promote political agendas.

SANJA B. ILIC

Venice