Manja Ristić tells the story of growing up in a sports family, with her famous water polo dad and Croatian freestyle swimming champion mom. In the overlapping narrative between two places – Belgrade and the small town of Korčula in the Southern Adriatic – the story tackles the golden times of Yugoslavian water polo, the community-built island’s club KPK, where her parents first met, and the only small-town club that won a major European championship, producing some of the most important players in the history of Yugoslavian water polo. It is the story of her father, the family, post-WWII Yugoslavia, her early childhood, the culture, and the society that vanished savagely with the outbreak of the ex-Yugoslav conflicts in the 1990s. The story is narrated by Manja, her son Luka, and British sound artist and radio producer Mark Vernon.
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Manja Ristić is a violinist, sound artist, published poet, curator, and researcher. Ristić’s sound-related research besides contemporary performance in the field of instrumental electro–acoustics, is focused on interdisciplinary approaches to sound and field recording as well as experimental radio arts. Ristić has created commissions for Kunstradio – Radiokunst, Radio Cona, SEMI SILENT, Radiophrenia, Radio Art Zone, Radia.FM, Framework Radio, and all national broadcasting agencies across SE Europe. The winner of several distinctive awards for solo and chamber classical music, holds an honourable mention from the Phonurgia Nova Awards, and a Golden Award for the extended media from the Association of Fine Artists of Serbia. She is a founding member of CENSE – Central European Network for Sonic Ecologies.
Script, composition, recording and editing by Manja Ristić for SEMI SILENT, in the frame of SONIC SPORTS.
Voices: Manja Ristić, Luka Bilbija, Mark Vernon
Mastering: Goran Simonoski – Studio La Plant
Archive material from TV broadcasts of water polo games: Italy – Yugoslavia, Finals Madrid 1986, World Championship; Olympic Games, Yugoslavia – USA, Los Angeles 1984
Illustration: Eleni Dafini Bacula