When Đokić family generously welcomed him back in the 60’s to their home near Niš, the famous Hollywood actor fell in love with Serbia. A pleasant Čokot Village, home-made pogača and cheese, but the warm hospitality as well, have won over De Niro who once said that he “felt like a Serb”.
In the summer of 1967, somewhere between Niš and Skoplje, an unshaved, young student is hitchhiking. His path intersects a farmer who is going back home after a working day at the market. The car full of red tomato stops in front of the adorable young man who is trying to explain in French that he needs help.
Although the language is not familiar to him, the farmer manages to understand that this stranger needed a ride. He opens the door of his trunk and they ride towards his home in the village of Čokot near Niš. On their way they bump into a resident of a village who explains the farmer that that young man needed a place to sleep, and he decides to take him home.
And all of this wouldn’t be so unusual, but that man was Robert De Niro. At the time, not many people knew about this famous actor. Actually, De Niro wasn’t famous back then. Still, a farmer Radovan Đokić didn’t care about who he was, but the only important thing was that to help a man in trouble.
De Niro was hosted in his home according to Serbian customs. The kind family gave him a room despite the wish of a guest to sleep in the barn. They had spent three days talking with their smiles and some sentences, and De Niro help them doing everyday chores.
When he was ready to leave, his bag was filled with home-made pogača and cheese, for the road. The actor has remembered this and has spoken about that publicly for years. After a year, De Niro visited the village of Čokot and Đokić family. He was delighted to see them again, but the most delighted was when he saw a mare named Olga whom he visited immediately.
Robert De Niro is a big fan of world’s best tennis player Novak Đoković, and he named his daughter Drina, after the big Serbian river.
Friends, whom the destiny connected in an unusual way, spent the most of their time in the garden with tomato. The actor helped them pick this vegetable, and according to the stories of the residents of Čokot, he liked the best to eat tomatoes with pogača and cheese. After three days, Robert De Niro left for Greece, but he was robbed by a hitchhiker near the village.
When he showed up at their doors again and explained what had happened to him, Radovan gave him the money to get to his desired destination. Despite his insistence to give him one of his cameras in return, Đokić didn’t want to accept it with words that he would pay him when he had the money. A few years later, Đokić family saw De Niro on the big screen.
In an interview for British media, De Niro announced that the greatest injustice was done to Serbs by Europe, but the entire world as well, when it was decided in 1999 to bomb this small country.
Although he has never returned to this small village near Niš, De Niro spoke about Serbia, Serbian customs, hospitality and food with special fervor. He visited Belgrade as a guest of FEST during 70’s, and he said many times that he felt like a Serb himself.
Featured photo: thesupercarkids.com
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