Bokan was born in the
Savski Venac area of
Belgrade on 15 February 1961 to
Serb 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 by the
Ustashe, as part of an
extermination campaign of Serbs during
World War II. After graduating from the
XI Belgrade Gymnasium, Bokan graduated from the Department of Film and Television Directing under professor at the
Faculty of Dramatic Arts and completed postgraduate studies at the
Faculty of Philosophy. In 1989, he directed three episodes on
Visoki Dečani as part of the
documentary series Svedoci vekova (Witnesses of the Centuries) produced by the broadcasting service
RTB. Later that year, he moved to
Port Chester,
New York and a year later he returned to Serbia. Back in Serbia, Bokan joined the
Serbian National Renewal party. Bokan and
Mirko Jović 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. 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. 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. The party however became defunct in 1993. Bokan was an uncredited
screenwriter for the 1993 film
Three Tickets to Hollywood. In an interview with
The New York Times 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 song, "Lullaby to a Ghetto". In 2007, he created the
Kosovo is Serbia billboard campaign with quotes from
Willy Brandt,
Winston Churchill,
Charles de Gaulle,
John F. Kennedy, and
George Washington. Bokan founded the
Lepa Srbija,
Rusija danas and
Vodič za život magazines, and is a contributor to the Urban Book Circle. For this, he was placed on a list of people banned from entering
Ukraine.
Republika Srpska name claim In a July 2014 interview for
Press, Bokan revealed that he, Goran Marić (
Plavi orkestar founder) and
Sonja Karadžić (
Radovan Karadžić's daughter) created the name
Republika Srpska as had been requested of them by Velibor Ostojić, then-Minister of Information of the
government of Republika Srpska.
Influences Bokan has stated that he first gained interest in
Serbian nationalism as a youngster after reading the
tetralogy Vreme smrti by
Dobrica Ćosić. Bokan has also been influenced by a number of authors and philosophers from the
esoteric Traditionalist school of thought such as
René Guénon,
Dragoš Kalajić,
Mircea Eliade,
Julius Evola,
Ezra Pound and
Béla Hamvas along with
Nouvelle Droite thinkers
Robert Steuckers and
Alain de Benoist. Bokan has also expressed admiration for
Miloš Crnjanski,
Milan Kašanin,
Léon Bloy,
Ivan Ilyin and politician
Jean-Marie Le Pen after meeting with him in the early 1990s.
Controversies Bokan has expressed
nationalistic and
far-right views. In January 2021, he was permanently suspended by
Facebook. During his appearance on
TV Pink 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. A day later, he denied the fact that he insulted her and then proceeded to insult her again. ==Personal life==