Branko Knezevic farewell: theater may take his name

Branko Knezevic (1952 - 2026), an actor and director at the Milanovac Theater, was laid to rest on September 29 in Gornji Milanovac. At the memorial, it was proposed that the theater take his name. The proposal came from Dragutin Balaban Bajka.

Knezevic died on September 27. The memorial began at 10:30 a.m. on the Small Stage of the Milanovac Theater. Family members, friends, colleagues and fellow townspeople attended, and the gathering opened with a minute of silence. The funeral took place the same day at 1 p.m. at the City Cemetery in Gornji Milanovac.

Who spoke at the memorial?

The main farewell address was read by Predrag Losic, an actor at the Milanovac Theater. He recalled that Knezevic was born in 1952 in Gornji Milanovac, where he finished high school before studying architecture in Belgrade. He sang in the Radio Television of Serbia choir and in the “Branko Krsmanovic” choir, later renamed “Obilic”.

From 2006 he was president of the Artistic Council of the Milanovac Theater. Losic said Knezevic had staged more than 20 productions of varied genres and styles.

Actor Ivan Pantovic read a letter from Vladimir Putnik, and actor Mihailo Ristic read a letter sent by Matej and members of the Loski oder acting family from Skofja Loka.

How did the Milanovac Theater come to be?

Balaban answered that question. He recalled the day Knezevic brought him to the space where the theater was to be born. The room, he said, was damp and musty.

“One day, I think it was 2006 or 2007, Branko brought me here and said: ‘Come, I want to show you something.’ I come, I walk into this room, there’s dampness and some mustiness, and he hands me a trowel and a mason’s tool and says: ‘The theater will be here,’” Balaban recalled.

At that moment he thought Knezevic had “lost his nerve.” Knezevic nevertheless explained where the stage would go and where the dressing room would be. Bajka concluded:

“The man explained it, and after some time the light in the tunnel called theater lit up Milanovac and all of Serbia and beyond,” Balaban said.

He closed his address with a proposal about the name:

“I would only like it if these children he called his actors would make an effort so that this theater bears his name, Branko Knezevic,” Balaban said at the memorial.

What did Knezevic leave behind?

His best-known role was Luka Laban in the play “Profesionalac” (The Professional). For it he received the “Milivojev stap i sesir” (Milivoje’s Cane and Hat) award at the Acting Festivities in Pozarevac in 2019. In 2022 he won the international “Zlatna Nike” (Golden Nike) award at the “Bosforski agoni” (Bosporan Agones) ancient art festival in Crimea, for playing Svetlovid and Socrates in the play “Labudova pesma - Sokratova odbrana i smrt” (The Swan Song: Socrates’ Defense and Death).

He also published two books, “Hronika o crvenog sedefa i druge price” (Chronicle of Red Mother-of-Pearl and Other Stories, 2019) and “Hronika jednog tumaranja” (Chronicle of a Wandering, 2026), both from the publisher “Grafoprint” in Gornji Milanovac.

In his letter, Putnik bade him farewell as a “theater magician,” an actor, director, teacher, poet and prose writer. He wrote:

“Branko always testified that the difference between an amateur actor and a professional lies in the amount of love given to the theater, in devotion and readiness for sacrifice, in these times of ours, uncertain for culture!”

What did the friends from Slovenia say?

The authors of the letter from Skofja Loka described how their friendship with Knezevic began. They performed “Antigone” in Laktasi, and he was in the audience. The following year the ensemble performed in Gornji Milanovac, and last year the Milanovac company appeared in Loka for the first time.

The letter also quoted Knezevic’s correspondence with the Slovenes:

“From the day we met in Laktasi after Antigone, I knew what would come. As much as we are ‘to blame,’ so are you. Now ‘we have nowhere to go.’ We must nurture this friendship and enrich it to our mutual satisfaction! Let the universe do its thing, and we will do ours,” Knezevic wrote.

They also promised him they would keep working:

“In your memory and in your honor we will keep doing our own thing. We will do what we know best, and that is theater,” the letter said.

They also said goodbye to the play “Tartuffe,” which Knezevic will no longer watch from the front row: “You’ll watch it from somewhere up there, from the last row, behind the clouds. But all that matters is that you will be with us forever.”

What did a friend of the family say?

Gordana Vorkapic, a friend of the family, recalled her youth in Dubrovnik, spent with Knezevic and her husband Vorko.

“I remember our youth, when Vorko and I spent some wonderful days with you in Dubrovnik. Stradun, the Rector’s Palace… The Dubrovnik Summer Festival, your wonderful tenor and the ‘Branko Krsmanovic’ choir, unforgettable concerts,” Vorkapic said.

She ended with the words: “And now a sudden departure and pain up to the sky. You are leaving after Vorko, and we are left with these wonderful, now painful memories. May God bless your departure and your path to the Heavenly Kingdom.”