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Fri Sep 24,11:06 AM ET |
MOKRA GORA, Serbia- Montenegro (AFP) - A small train climbs up the mountain of Chargan, near Serbia's border with Bosnia, fulfiling a 100-year-old prophecy in a landscape of forests and ravines, the scene of Serbia-based director Emir Kusturica's latest film, "Life is a Miracle."
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In Mokra Gora station two railway workers polish two antique steam locomotives, showing special care for the small German-made "Elza" before she lurches into motion in a billowing cloud of steam and gray smoke.
During its 15-kilometer (nine-mile) journey, the train that can carry about 100 passengers passes through 22 tunnels, over a dozen bridges and viaducts and makes a figure-eight around the mountain.
The conductor blows a powerful wistle as the train approaches each of four stations, where hotels, restaurants and cafes are under construction.
The so-called Chargan Eight, reconstructed in 1999, is one of the tourist attractions the Serbian authorities are using to publicise their bid to revive the tourist industry, devastated by the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
Kusturica's movie, shown in May at the Cannes film festival (news - web sites) but still not released in Serbia, may become the industry's powerful ally.
"The celebration scene was filmed here," boasted the assistant conductor as Elza rumbled into Golubici station, referring to a scene in the film.
A local resident, the assistant conductor watched the shooting and reminds passengers that its premiere in Serbia will be on Saturday at Mokra Gora, especially for village inhabitants.
Impressed by the landscape of Chargan mountain, Kusturica has decided to move here. Just outside Mokra Gora he has built a new village made entirely of wood, including the streets.
Kusturica is also the mayor and financial backer and sole resident of "Eco-selo" ecological village. The cinema, swimming pool, restaurant and library are finished, and bulldozers are working on a road to bring in tourists to rent apartments in the village.
In time, it is hoped that visitors will come from neighbouring Bosnia and Montenegro as well as from Belgrade and other Serbian cities. The Chargan Eight can extend its route west to the Bosnian town of Visegrad, and south to the main road that links Belgrade with the Montenegrin port of Bar.
The small train would therefore have the same mission it had when it was constructed in 1920. It was designed at the time to link different parts of what was the then the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
The Tarabic brothers, sons of the region, predicted 150 years ago that a train would one day stop at Chargan mountain and that passengers would travel on it "just for pleasure".
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/afp/20040924/lf_afp/afplifestyle_serbia
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