A Phototype Exhibition about the Famous Bosnian Writer Isak Samokovlia will be Presented in Samokov
The Historical Museum in Samokov, the Embassy of the Republic of Bulgaria in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the State Institute for Culture to the Minister of Foreign Affairs invite you to the documentary phototype exhibition dedicated to the personality of the doctor and writer Isak Samokovlia. The exhibition will be opened on April 24 at 5:30 p.m. in the exhibition hall of the History Museum in Samokov and will remain there until May 20, 2023.
Isak Samokovlia is one of the most famous Bosnian writers. His writing style makes him Bosnia and Herzegovina's second greatest storyteller after Ivo Andrić. His origin is from Samokov and that is where his surname comes from. Isak Samokovlia was born on September 3, 1889, in Gorazde, into a family of Sephardic Jews, during the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Isac Samokovlia's parents, Mosha and Rifko, had three sons and one daughter besides Isaac. Isac was named after his grandfather Isaac ben Moshe, who was a merchant by trade. Isac Samokovlia's ancestors, like other Jews, were expelled from Spain in 1492 by edict of the Spanish King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella. In search of a new place to live, they traveled through Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Turkey and Greece, all the way to Bulgaria, where they settled in the Bulgarian town of Samokov.
The nostalgia with which Isac Samokovlia describes the place his relatives left makes him extremely close to the souls of his readers. He writes about wealth, about poverty, he writes about people who try to survive in their difficult life path, about those who do not know the beginning nor the end of their well-being. Much of Samokovlia's focus in his narratives is on the man as a being who is born in solitude and achieves his victories again in solitude. His collection "Samuel the Porter" contains some of his best stories.
For the first time, the exhibition will present in Bulgaria the curious life path of this great writer, creating a cultural bridge between the two countries. It is created by The Museum of Literature and Performing Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina and is carried out with the support of the State Institute for Culture under the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of the Republic of Bulgaria in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The presentation of the documentary phototype exhibition about Isak Samokovlia is part of the initiatives in connection with the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the rescue of Bulgarian Jews during the Second World War.