Dragoslav Bokan

Dragoslav Bokan (Serbian Cyrillic: Драгослав Бокан, pronounced [drǎgoslaʋ bǒkan]; born 15 February 1961) is a Serbian film director and writer.[2]

Dragoslav Bokan
Born (1961-02-15) 15 February 1961
Belgrade, PR Serbia, FPR Yugoslavia
NationalitySerbian
EducationXI Belgrade Gymnasium
Alma materUniversity of Belgrade
OccupationFilm director and writer
Spouse(s)Željka Zdjelar[1]

Biography

Bokan was born in the Savski Venac area of Belgrade on 15 February 1961 to Serb parents Ilija (died 2005) and Milka (née Devetak). Several of his family members (including his maternal grandfather and great-grandfather) were killed at the Jasenovac concentration camp by the Ustashe, as part of an extermination campaign of Serbs during World War II.[3]

Bokan graduated from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts at age 22. In 1989, he directed three episodes on Visoki Dečani as part of the documentary series Svedoci vekova (Witnesses of the Centuries) produced by the broadcasting service RTB.[4] Later that year, he moved to Port Chester, New York and a year later he returned to Serbia.

Back in Serbia, Bokan joined the Serbian National Renewal party. Bokan and Mirko Jović led the paramilitary section of the party known as the White Eagles. Some White Eagles members were convicted of war crimes and other atrocities, but not those under Bokan's command.[5] On 23 April 1992, Bokan was arrested in Belgrade.[6] He was accused of "possession of one hand grenade and four bullets found in his apartment" and was jailed for seven days. The trial lasted for a year and a half, and eventually resulted in a sentence of six months imprisonment.[7] The arrest was an apparent effort to ease criticism of Serbia's role in the Bosnian War.[8] After the arrest, Bokan and Jović went their separate ways.

In the early 1990s he worked for the Belgrade publishing company BIGZ and wrote for Pogledi. In 1992, he founded and led the Serbian Fatherland Association party and ran for the presidency of Serbia in the 1992 Serbian general election. The party however became defunct in 1993. Bokan was an uncredited screenwriter for the 1993 film Three Tickets to Hollywood.[9] In an interview with The New York Times in April 1994, he was quoted as saying, "I don't believe in democracy because I don’t believe that any group at any time can change the course and goals of their ancestors."[10]

Bokan was interviewed in the 1995 BBC documentary series The Death of Yugoslavia. A part of his interview from this series appears at the end of the Death in June song, "Lullaby to a Ghetto". In 2007, he created the Kosovo is Serbia billboard campaign with quotes from Willy Brandt, Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle, John F. Kennedy, and George Washington.[11][12]

Bokan founded the Lepa Srbija, Rusija danas and Vodič za život magazines, and is a contributor to the Urban Book Circle.[13] On 17 July 2014, he was named the Donetsk People's Republic representative in Serbia (with a one-year term) by Denis Pushilin, Chairman of the Supreme Council.[14] For this, he was placed on a list of people banned from entering Ukraine.[15]

Republika Srpska name claim

In a July 2014 interview for Press, Bokan revealed that he, Goran Marić (Plavi orkestar founder) and Sonja Karadžić (Radovan Karadžić's daughter) created the name Republika Srpska as had been requested of them by Velibor Ostojić, then-Minister of Information of the government of Republika Srpska.[5]

Influences

Bokan has stated that he first gained interest in Serbian nationalism as a youngster after reading the tetralogy Vreme smrti by Dobrica Ćosić. Bokan has also been influenced by a number of authors and philosophers from the esoteric Traditionalist school of thought such as René Guénon, Dragoš Kalajić, Mircea Eliade, Julius Evola, Ezra Pound and Béla Hamvas along with Nouvelle Droite thinkers Robert Steuckers and Alain de Benoist. Bokan has also expressed admiration for Miloš Crnjanski, Milan Kašanin, Ivan Ilyin and politician Jean-Marie Le Pen after meeting with him in the early 1990s.[16]

Personal life

Bokan has six children.[17] His first child Vlad passed away at the age of three days on 16 April 1993 due to an injury caused by childbirth.[18]

Published books

In 1988, Bokan initiated the publishing and Serbian-language translation of On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and The Heroic in History by Thomas Carlyle.

He is also the author of the following books:

  • Ognjeni ljiljani (1998)
  • Portret mladog dendija (2000)
  • Junaci srpskog ustanka (2004) – authored under the pseudonym Vuk Devetak
  • Beograd, grad tajni (2004)
  • Novi Sad: Od varoši do grada (2005)
  • Kosovo je srce Srbije (2008)
  • Politika: Mit, hronika, enciklopedija (2008)

References
  1. "Željka Zdjelar: Biografija sa pevanjem i pucanjem". Espreso.rs. February 21, 2016. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
  2. "Dragoslav Bokan biography". Urban Book Circle. May 16, 2013. Retrieved October 29, 2013.
  3. Ćirilica - Ristić, Jakšić, Bokan, Petronijević i Živanović (TV Happy, 20 November 2017)
  4. Visoki Dečani - first episode on YouTube Official channel of RTS;Visoki Dečani - second episode on YouTube Official channel of RTS;Visoki Dečani - third episode on YouTube Official channel of RTS
  5. Pressrs.ba (19 July 2014). "Srpska suverenija od Srbije!" (in Serbian). Archived from the original on 8 September 2015. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
  6. Bokan arrested in Belgrade, Refworld.org; accessed 13 July 2015.
  7. Trial of Bokan, Tol.org; accessed 13 July 2015.
  8. The Times-News (April 25, 1992). "Ongoing battles threaten European Community peace efforts". News.google.com. Retrieved September 2, 2015.
  9. IN4S (January 25, 2014). "Da se sjetimo filma Tri karte za Holivud" (in Serbian). Retrieved March 13, 2019.
  10. John Kifner (April 10, 1994). "The World; Through the Serbian Mind's Eye". The New York Times. Retrieved November 28, 2020.
  11. Nicholas Wood (November 16, 2007). "Serbs use words of Western leaders to support Kosovo stand". The New York Times. Retrieved May 3, 2020.
  12. Nicholas Wood (December 24, 2007). "Serbia Enlisting Some Unlikely Faces". The New York Times. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
  13. "ABOUT US - Urban Book Circle®". Urbanbookcircle.com. February 14, 2012. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
  14. Narodna republika Donjeck dobija predstavništvo u Srbiji: Dragoslav Bokan, komandant srpskih Belih orlova na čelu, Novosti.rs, 12 August 2014; accessed 4 August 2018 (in Serbian)
  15. Kijev "progoni" i naprednjake, Večernje novosti, 20 October 2016; accessed 20 December 2017 (in Serbian)
  16. Dada Vujasinović, Duga (April 11, 1992). Firer mekog srca (pg. 47) (in Serbian). ISBN 9780231501569. Retrieved May 30, 2018.
  17. Urban Book Circle (September 19, 2019). "Драгослав Бокан" (in Serbian). Retrieved January 26, 2021.
  18. Slobodan Despot (April 18, 2014). "Quand un père doit baptiser seul son bébé mourant" (in French). Retrieved May 30, 2018.
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