Radoš Bajić after 40 years in Sarajevo: He visited the grave of Hajrudin Krvavac
After four decades, the celebrated Serbian actor, screenwriter and director Radoš Bajić is once again spending time in Sarajevo. He began his career at the age of twenty-two with a major super-spectacle, the film The Day That Shook the World by Veljko Bulajić, in which he made his debut side by side with world stars Christopher Plummer, Florinda Bolkan and Maximilian Schell, and brilliantly played the role of the Young Bosnian Nedeljko Čabrinović.
Radoš Bajić after 40 years in Sarajevo; PHOTO CREDIT: Contrast Studios
After the great success and popularity that this role brought him, he made several films in Bosnia and Herzegovina, among which the cult epic from the cycle of Partisan films stands out in particular – Battle of the Eagles, directed by the great master of action spectacle Hajrudin Šiba Krvavac.
In the year of his anniversary, as he celebrates half a century of a successful career, it was good fortune that allowed Radoš to have the opportunity to revisit the paths of his youth, to recall with emotion his beginnings. On that occasion he also visited the place where he shot his very first professional scene, in the anthology sequence where, on the banks of the Miljacka, Čabrinović throws a bomb at Franz Ferdinand, failing to hit the target.
Radoš Bajić on the set of the new film The Line
“I accepted a striking cameo role in the film The Line, directed by my colleague Dragan Elčić. Apart from the fact that it is an excellent script by the author Željko Pržulj and director Elčić, from which, I believe, an exceptional film will be made, produced by Ramonda Film, which speaks of the tragedy of a time and the terrible war in Bosnia in the nineties, I also accepted this engagement because of the opportunity, after so many years, to revisit Sarajevo and on that occasion visit the grave of a giant of film, ‘the John Ford of Yugoslav cinema’, as Hajrudin Šiba Krvavac was rightly called,” says Radoš, and adds:
“I felt it was my duty, after so many years since his tragic death, to bow to his memory and thank him for all he did for me. And he did a great deal…”
It is little known that Krvavac died in his bed, completely alone in his flat on the sixth floor during the blockade and shelling of Sarajevo in 1992, after he had previously refused the pleas and entreaties of Bata Živojinović to be evacuated, which Bata had organised.
With Šiba and Bata
“Šiba died like his film heroes – with dignity, courage and exaltation. And with his death he sent a powerful message about the tragedy and futility of war, which brings misfortune to all and destroys everything that is human,” concluded Radoš Bajić.