Cartoon & Reality

Kosova “La Linea”

In late eighties Radio and Television of Prishtina broadcasted an animated movie called “La Linea” or most of people know it as “Balou Balou”. I loved watching “La Linea” when I was a kid, so I was thrilled watching all his journey where the character of an infinite drawn line interacted with the hand that holds the pen and continuosly plays with its fate.

By: Fazli Rrezja

Until recently I thought “La Linea” is pure animation and pure entertaining with no deeper meaning, but looking things from the political, economical and social views in Kosova, it seems that almost every citizen of Kosovo is walking in a real infinite and interacted thin line.The cartoon features a man known as "Mr. Linea" , walking on an infinite line ,although there’s dialogue, it’s essentially gibberish, and all the storytelling is done by the drawing.

The character, sharp little man with a truly expressive nose encounters obstacles and often turns screaming to the hand with the pen to draw him a solution. One recurring obstacle was an abrupt end of line. The character would seem very short-tempered and complain about it.Kosova people had a chance to look at this animation about twenty years ago. Now, our televisions are not broadcasting this animation.

I think it is no need for that, because almost every citizen feels the same as the character in “La Linea”. Walking in a thin and not stable Line we are always interacted and interfered by a powerful hand that plays a huge role in our daily lives.Social, political, economical problems are imposed in this line. So we deal with a lot of problems in daily basis. It’s not the same anymore. People in Kosovo don’t watch “La Linea” animation in TV, but feel it in their human life journey.