Van Damme in Nis: "Serbia Is a Beautiful Country"

Jean-Claude Van Damme visited Nis City Hall on August 26, where Mayor Dragoslav Pavlovic welcomed him on behalf of the city, Informer reports. The Hollywood actor met young karate practitioners from the Nis Karate Club, coached by Branko Arandjelovic, in the courtyard, tried out a few katas with them and posed for photos. At one point he and Pavlovic raised three fingers in the air, a gesture that, according to the City of Nis, delighted everyone present.

Deputy Mayor Luka Gasevic and City Council member Ivana Cvetkovic also attended the reception. Van Damme and Pavlovic talked about his film career, working with famous actors and how he spends his time these days. The mayor thanked him for coming and praised how he treats his fans.

Pavlovic told the actor: “You’re a huge star, anyone can talk to you, you’re really a great guy.”

Van Damme also looked back at the previous evening, when he walked the red carpet at the opening of the first International Film Festival in Nis.

“Yesterday’s red carpet was incredible, I’ve never seen anything like it, it was great,” Van Damme said at City Hall.

The festival opened on the evening of August 25 at the Summer Stage of the Nis Fortress, a day before the actor came to City Hall. The red carpet ran from the festival center at the Ambasador Hotel, across the bridge by the Fortress, to the stage itself, and besides Van Damme it was walked by Snezana Savic, Lidija Vukicevic, Iva Strljic, Jovana Jeremic, Rastko Jankovic, Zeljko Mitrovic and Toni Bijelic.

Savic, the festival’s jury president, received the keys to the city that day and declared the festival open from the stage. Van Damme spoke to the audience after her, thanked Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Zeljko Mitrovic for the invitation, and then said this.

The good news is Serbia is a beautiful country, but the president beat me at arm wrestling. And of course, Serbia is wonderful. I have never seen organization this good anywhere, like here in Nis.

Telegraf carried the line verbatim from the Summer Stage. Some other reports circulate the same quote in a slightly different form, “Serbia is a gorgeous country,” but that version has not been independently confirmed and cannot be reliably attributed to Van Damme in exactly that wording.

The actor added that he was sorry he could not stop for photos with everyone while walking from the hotel to the Fortress, and that he is already preparing for a new role set on a submarine, for which he has to shed the muscle mass he built up for the action film “The Gardener.” That film, in which Van Damme plays the lead, screened at the festival’s opening alongside Rados Bajic’s new film “The Keeper of the Icon of Saint George.” The evening closed with fireworks over the Nis Fortress.

After his speech, Van Damme took photos with fans and signed autographs, and he did the same again the next day at City Hall, where he shared the three-finger pose with the mayor.

The International Film Festival in Nis runs through August 30. It is organized by the Nis Cultural Center, sponsored by the City of Nis and Serbia’s Ministry of Culture, with Telekom Srbija as the general sponsor. We covered the festival before it opened too, when we reported that Nis is getting two festivals this year and that the first one kicks off with a Hollywood star’s appearance.