Croatian Radio's short radio drama "Earthquake", from the Short Forms cycle, has won the BBC Best European Drama Award 2021 after reaching the finals with Austrian and Swiss radio shows.

Katja Simunic, editor of the Short Forms programme, confirmed to the Croatian state news agency Hina that they had learned they had won the BBC Best European Award 2021 in a live Zoom broadcast on Friday evening and that they were very happy.

The radio drama “Earthquake” was created as part of the Short Forms programme, which is regularly broadcast from 6.05 to 6.15 p.m. from Monday to Wednesday on Croatian Radio One. The drama was created in 2019, before devastating earthquakes struck Croatia in March and December 2020.

Based on a short story by Croatian avant-garde author Janko Polic-Kamov from his 1908 collection “The Book of Travesties”, “Earthquake” had also won second prize at the International Radio Drama Festival in Bucharest last year.

This encourages us to continue exploring our drama programme, said Katja Simunic, adding that excellent interpretation of Kamov’s century-old original text, as well as the emotional resonance the work had with the audience, were crucial for the drama’s success.

She also singled out director Dario Harjacek, composer Maro Market, in charge of sound design, and sound engineer Lana Deban, saying their work was innovative and extraordinary.

Also crucial was the emotion that this short radio form evoked, especially in us who experienced the recent earthquakes, but also throughout the whole of Europe and the world going through a pandemic, she said.