Dragoslav Bokan (, ; born 15 February 1961) is a Serbian film director, writer, politician and former paramilitary commander.

Biography

Bokan was born in the

Savski Venac Savski Venac ( sr-cyr, Савски Венац, ) is a municipality of the city of Belgrade. According to the 2011 census results, the municipality has a population of 39,122 inhabitants. It is one of the three municipalities which constitute the ...

area of

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1,166,763 mi ...

on 15 February 1961 to

Serb The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language. The majority of Serbs live in their na ...

parents Ilija and Milka (née Devetak). Several of his family members (including his maternal grandfather and great-grandfather) were killed at the

Jasenovac concentration camp Jasenovac () was a concentration and extermination camp established in the village of the same name by the authorities of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) in occupied Yugoslavia during World War II. The concentration camp, one of the ...

by the Ustashe, as part of an extermination campaign of Serbs during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. Bokan graduated from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts at age 22. In 1989, he directed three episodes on

Visoki Dečani The Visoki Dečani Monastery ( sr, Манастир Високи Дечани, Manastir Visoki Dečani, sq, Manastiri i Deçanit) is a medieval Serbian Orthodox Christian monastery located near Deçan, Kosovo. It was founded in the first half of ...

as part of the

documentary series Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film. *Television documentary series, sometimes called d ...

''Svedoci vekova'' (Witnesses of the Centuries) produced by the broadcasting service RTB. Later that year, he moved to

Port Chester Port Chester is a village in the U.S. state of New York and the largest part of the town of Rye in Westchester County by population. At the 2010 U.S. census, the village of Port Chester had a population of 28,967 and was the fifth-most populou ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and a year later he returned to Serbia. Back in Serbia, Bokan joined the

Serbian National Renewal The Serbian National Renewal ( sr, Српска народна обнова, Srpska narodna obnova; abbr. СНО or ''SNO'') was a nationalist political party in Serbia that existed in the first half of the 1990s. History The Serbian National Ren ...

party. Bokan and

Mirko Jović Mirko Jović ( Serbian Cyrillic: Мирко Јовић; born 13 August 1959, in Zemun) is a Serbian politician who stood for president of Serbia in the 2004 Serbian presidential election for the Radical Party of People, Serbia, Diaspora and E ...

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. On 23 April 1992, Bokan was arrested in Belgrade. 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. The arrest was an apparent effort to ease criticism of Serbia's role in the

Bosnian War The Bosnian War ( sh, Rat u Bosni i Hercegovini / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The war is commonly seen as having started ...

. 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 ''Pogledi'' (Serbian Cyrillic: ''Погледи'', meaning Viewpoints in English) was a Serbia-based magazine devoted to politics and history, published biweekly.''Pogledi'', issue number 70, November 9–23, 1990. YU ISSN 0353-3832 ''Pogledi'' wa ...

''. In 1992, he founded and led the ''Srpski otadžbinski savez'' (Serbian Fatherland Association) party and ran for the presidency of Serbia in the

1992 Serbian general election Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since the ...

. The party however became defunct in 1993. Bokan was an uncredited

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

for the 1993 film '' Three Tickets to Hollywood''. In an interview with ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' 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." 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 Death in June are a neofolk group led by English musician Douglas P. (Douglas Pearce). The band was originally formed in the United Kingdom in 1981 as a trio, but after the other members left in 1984 and 1985 to work on other projects, the grou ...

song, "Lullaby to a Ghetto". In 2007, he created the

Kosovo is Serbia "Kosovo is Serbia" ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Косово је Србија, Kosovo je Srbija) is a slogan that has been used in Serbia since the 1980s, later popularised as a reaction to Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia. History The ...

billboard campaign with quotes from

Willy Brandt Willy Brandt (; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and served as the chancellor of West Ger ...

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...

Charles de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Governm ...

, John F. Kennedy, and

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...

. Bokan founded the ''Lepa Srbija'', ''Rusija danas'' and ''Vodič za život'' magazines, and is a contributor to the Urban Book Circle. On 17 July 2014, he was named the

Donetsk People's Republic The Donetsk People's Republic ( rus, Донецкая Народная Республика, Donetskaya Narodnaya Respublika, dɐˈnʲetskəjə nɐˈrodnəjə rʲɪˈspublʲɪkə; abbreviated as DPR or DNR, rus, ДНР) is a disputed en ...

representative in Serbia (with a one-year term) by

Denis Pushilin Denis Vladimirovich Pushilin (russian: Дени́с Влади́мирович Пуши́лин, ; uk, Денис Володимирович Пушилін, Denys Volodymyrovych Pushylin; born 9 May 1981) is a Russian and Ukrainian politician ...

, Chairman of the Supreme Council. For this, he was placed on a list of people banned from entering

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...

Republika Srpska name claim

In a July 2014 interview for ''Press'', Bokan revealed that he, Goran Marić (

Plavi orkestar Plavi orkestar () is a Bosnian and former Yugoslavian pop rock band from Sarajevo. The band was formed in 1983 by Saša Lošić, who is the lead singer and songwriter of the group. The band has remained popular with seven albums and more than ...

founder) and Sonja Karadžić (

Radovan Karadžić Radovan Karadžić ( sr-cyr, Радован Караџић, ; born 19 June 1945) is a Bosnian Serb politician, psychiatrist and poet. He was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes by the International Criminal Tr ...

's daughter) created the name

Republika Srpska Republika Srpska ( sr-Cyrl, Република Српска, lit=Serb Republic, also known as Republic of Srpska, ) is one of the two entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is located ...

as had been requested of them by Velibor Ostojić, then-Minister of Information of the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government i ...

of Republika Srpska.

Influences

Bokan has stated that he first gained interest in

Serbian nationalism Serbian nationalism asserts that Serbs are a nation and promotes the cultural and political unity of Serbs. It is an ethnic nationalism, originally arising in the context of the general rise of nationalism in the Balkans under Ottoman rule, u ...

as a youngster after reading the

tetralogy A tetralogy (from Greek τετρα- ''tetra-'', "four" and -λογία ''-logia'', "discourse") is a compound work that is made up of four distinct works. The name comes from the Attic theater, in which a tetralogy was a group of three tragedies f ...

''Vreme smrti'' by

Dobrica Ćosić Dobrica Ćosić ( sr, Добрица Ћосић, ; 29 December 1921 – 18 May 2014) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician, writer, and political theorist. Ćosić was twice awarded the prestigious NIN award for literature and Medal of Pushkin ...

. Bokan has also been influenced by a number of authors and philosophers from the

esoteric Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas ...

Traditionalist

school of thought A school of thought, or intellectual tradition, is the perspective of a group of people who share common characteristics of opinion or outlook of a philosophy, discipline, belief, social movement, economics, cultural movement, or art movement. ...

such as

René Guénon René Jean-Marie-Joseph Guénon (15 November 1886 – 7 January 1951), also known as ''Abdalwâhid Yahiâ'' (; ''ʿAbd al-Wāḥid Yaḥiā'') was a French intellectual who remains an influential figure in the domain of metaphysics, having writte ...

Dragoš Kalajić Dragoš Kalajić ( sr-Cyrl, Драгош Калајић; 22 February 1943 – 22 July 2005) was a Serbian painter, philosopher and writer. Early life and education Dragoš Kalajić was born on 22 February 1943 in Belgrade. Dragoš's father Velimi ...

Mircea Eliade Mircea Eliade (; – April 22, 1986) was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who established paradigms in religiou ...

Julius Evola Giulio Cesare Andrea "Julius" Evola (; 19 May 1898 – 11 June 1974) was an Italian philosopher, poet, painter, Esotericism, esotericist, and Far-right politics, radical-right ideologue. Evola regarded his values as aristocracy (class), aristocra ...

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...

and

Béla Hamvas Béla Hamvas (23 March 1897 – 7 November 1968) was a Hungarian writer, philosopher, and social critic. He was the first thinker to introduce the Traditionalist School of René Guénon to Hungary. Biography Béla Hamvas was born on 23 Marc ...

along with ''

Nouvelle Droite The Nouvelle Droite (; en, "New Right"), sometimes shortened to the initialism ND, is a far-right political movement which emerged in France during the late 1960s. The Nouvelle Droite is at the origin of the wider European New Right (ENR). Vario ...

'' thinkers and

Alain de Benoist Alain de Benoist (; ; born 11 December 1943) – also known as Fabrice Laroche, Robert de Herte, David Barney, and other pen names – is a French journalist and political philosopher, a founding member of the Nouvelle Droite ("New Right"), and ...

. Bokan has also expressed admiration for

Miloš Crnjanski Miloš Crnjanski ( sr-cyr, Милош Црњански, ; 26 October 1893 – 30 November 1977) was a Serbian writer and poet of the expressionist wing of Serbian modernism, author, and a diplomat. Biography Crnjanski was born in Csongrád (mod ...

, Milan Kašanin,

Ivan Ilyin Ivan Alexandrovich Ilyin or Il'in (Ива́н Алекса́ндрович Ильи́н, – 21 December 1954) was a Russian jurist, a dogmatic religious and political philosopher, an orator and conservative monarchist. He perceived the Febru ...

and politician

Jean-Marie Le Pen Jean Louis Marie Le Pen (, born 20 June 1928) is a French far-right politician who served as President of the National Front from 1972 to 2011. He also served as Honorary President of the National Front from 2011 to 2015. Le Pen graduated fro ...

after meeting with him in the early 1990s.

Controversies

Bokan has expressed

nationalistic Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: T ...

and

far-right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...

views. In January 2021, he was permanently suspended by

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dust ...

. During his appearance on

TV Pink Pink is a privately owned, national radio station and TV channel in Serbia. Pink is the leading commercial station in the Serbian television broadcast market. Pink's parent company is the Belgrade-based Pink International Company Pink Interna ...

on 29 November 2021, Bokan insulted opposition politician Marinika Tepić due to her Romanian descent and he declared her as the

enemy of the people The term enemy of the people or enemy of the nation, is a designation for the political or class opponents of the subgroup in power within a larger group. The term implies that by opposing the ruling subgroup, the "enemies" in question are ac ...

. A day later, he denied the fact that he insulted her and then proceeded to insult her again.

Personal life

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

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 Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. A leading writer of the Victorian era, he exerted a profound influence on 19th-century art, literature and philosophy. Born in Ecclefechan, ...

. He is also the author of the following books: * ''Ognjeni ljiljani'' (1998) * ''Portret mladog dendija'' (2000) * ''Junaci srpskog ustanka'' (2004) – authored under the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individu ...

Vuk Devetak * ''Beograd, grad tajni'' (2004) * ''Novi Sad: Od varoši do grada'' (2005) * ''Kosovo je srce Srbije'' (2008) * ''Politika: Mit, hronika, enciklopedija'' (2008)

References

External links

*
Dragoslav Bokan
at Library Thing {{DEFAULTSORT:Bokan, Dragoslav 1961 births Living people Writers from Belgrade Magazine publishers (people) Serbian documentary filmmakers Serbian film directors Serbian nationalists Serbian National Renewal politicians Serbian monarchists Serbian screenwriters Male screenwriters Serbian male essayists Serbian social commentators Serbian political commentators Members of the Serbian Orthodox Church Candidates for President of Serbia Pro-Russian people of the war in Donbas University of Belgrade Faculty of Dramatic Arts alumni University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy alumni Yugoslav expatriates in the United States