Today we bid farewell to Djoko Rosic, a film actor loved my many Bulgarians cast in a range of movie parts in the masterpieces of Bulgarian cinema. He will be remembered for his remarkable talent, and also for his great wisdom that he used to share with us.

The romantic cowboy of the Bulgarian, Serbian and Hungarian cinema died on 21 February, a week before his 82nd birthday. He was extraordinary, and not only for the fact that he was born on 29 February. It is also his unusual background – a Bulgarian with Serbian roots, or a Serbian with Bulgarian roots. He was born in 1932 to a family of teachers and aged 19 emigrated to Bulgaria for political reasons. A great patriot, he was given Bulgarian citizenship in 2002, after he had spent 50 years in this country.

Djoko Rosic began his career in the Bulgarian National Radio, as broadcaster in Radio Bulgaria’s Serbian Language service. The BNR Golden Archives keep his memories:

“I started work at the Radio at 19 something. During the day I studied at the university, and the afternoons I spent working for the Yugoslav Service as translator and presenter. Then I moved to the Central Information Desk of Radio Bulgaria writing various features for shortwave broadcasts in several languages. The BNR International Service was packed with quite skilled people, because one had to speak foreign languages fluently. Well, in fact back then, we made propaganda for the communist party and its regime, but I am not ashamed of even a single line I wrote back at that time”.

For Djoko Rosic, the 17 years that he spent at the Radio were the best years of his life but ended in disenchantment:

“In 1968 after the events in Czechoslovakia, there was a purge at the Radio. I was a Yugoslav citizen then and there was a rule that a foreign national should not be employed there, though the International Service had a few foreign nationals on its payroll. I was a good professional and in the early 1960s even received a prize for journalism. Still, I was laid off as a foreigner, and a few months ago, the same happened to my wife Liliana Lazarova, a music editor. Her only fault was that she was my wife.”

The film career of Djoko Rosic took off owing to the Bulgarian National Radio Director-General at that time, Misho Nikolov who advised Djoko to have a try after an invitation was received at the Radio. Rosic did not intend to leave the radio for cinema, as he loved the radio job. But after he was laid off, his chance was the pictures. He was cast in 110 movies including a few Bulgarian classics: The Weddings of Tsar Ioan Assen, Khan Asparuh, Captain Petko Voivode and Time of Violence. He was cast in numerous Serbian and Hungarian movies as well. In his older age he was cast in Prima Primavera directed by Hungarian Janosz Edeleni, in Tuvalu by German Veit Helmer and in the French film production Vercingetorix starring Christopher Lambert and Max von Sydow.

Djoko Rosic had a rich collection with national distinctions including among others, the Cyril and Methodius Order First Class and Golden Age for lifetime achievement. Four years ago he was given a lifetime achievement award from the Hungarian cinema community. After women, the greatest love of knight Rosic were horses symbolizing the freedom of spirit. After 35 years on the saddle, Djoko Rosic is now riding a mustang in the heavenly prairie of a hopefully much better Universe.

English version: Daniela Konstantinova