About the project

The very name of the project describes what we will be exploring in the next two years together with our partners from Belgium and Spain.

Fairy tales are the first stories that children learn about. It is through fairy tales that they get to learn about the world out there. Fairy tales put children to sleep and awaken their imagination. And there is nothing wrong with them in that period of our life. However, as we grow up, we start realizing that the real life is much more different than the life portrayed in the fairy tales. When we reach teenage years, we are somehow expected to forget everything we’d read because it simply isn’t true anymore. Many of you might think there is nothing wrong with that, that’s how the world works. But what about those of us who really liked the way life was presented in those fairy tales? What about those who’d really hoped life would turn out that way in reality too? What about that “and they lived happily ever after” promise? What if we can’t seem to find our ground with the new expectations real life has imposed upon us? Would it be better then if we didn’t put a full stop at the end of a fairy tale but rather a comma?

This topic isn’t to be understood lightly, despite the very loud protests of many among us that the fairy tales are beautiful and shouldn’t be “desecrated” in this way. However, even one of the most famous production companies, “Disney” has also realized that fairy tales’ messages and expectations have “failed” children in the 21^st century. We have been witnesses, for the past few decades, of how Disney has taken a different approach and perspective with fairy tales. In the heart of most of the fairy tales is love between a beautiful princess / girl and a brave prince. Disney, however, has boldly suggested some other themes too: one of the most popular fairy tale movies recently has been “Frozen” – a story about the relation between two sisters. Then, there is “Brave” – a story about the relation between a mother and a daughter. “Mulan” and “Aladdin” break the stereotypes about girls and show two smart and courageous girls who are ready to tackle life’s challenges and to stand for their values. And the list goes on.

In conclusion: we have nothing against fairy tales, we love them, but we are advocating for their more contemporary reinterpretation. We are advocating for “the comma” and for a subtle continuation of that famous sentence: “And they lived happily ever after, facing everyday problems and hardships that, like everyone else in this world, they solved more or less successfully.”

Something like that. We are advocating for a more relaxed approach, with a bit of humour, a bit of modernity so that the frightening forest from the Red Riding Hood becomes a virtual forest instead. Modern day predators are lurking in those kinds of forests nowadays and the real forests are usually seen and experienced only in the pictures.

Together with our friends from Belgium and Spain we will try to tackle fairy tales from a more useful and a better angle. We will try to adapt them to us, the 21^st century citizens. However, due to the global circumstances that are very well known to all of us, our plans have had to change a bit. So instead of meeting and talking to each other in the streets of our cities, we have to do it through our computers.

And in order to get to know each other better, we decided to wish each other best for the New Year holidays in a more traditional way: our students made old-style, fantastic New Year and Christmas cards and sent them among three countries before finally arriving to their destinations, sometimes three weeks later. They were accompanied by short videos and that’s how our students saw and met each other for the first time.

And now we are ready to start working. We’ve sent each other one traditional fairy tale from each of the three countries. That’s how Serbia has learnt about the Belgian lord Maldegem, and Belgium has found out about “our” emperor Trojan. We are awaiting the fairy tale from Spain. Our main task and challenge is to give the traditional stories their new, modern face. Every country gets to choose the way to present their “updated” story. In our school we are working full speed and creativity is pouring out.

Nataša Mugoša, Project Coordinator

Mobility - Belgium

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The first mobility - Spain

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Dramatization of fairy tale "У цара Тројана козје уши" - 4/3