Remains of Actor Velimir Bata Živojinović Moved to His Birthplace Ten years after Velimir Bata Živojinović’s death, the clash between national honor and personal wish was finally resolved in marble and earth—not in Belgrade’s elite necropolis, but in a quiet village under Kosmaj.

On May 22, 2016, the legendary actor died, and the state buried him with full symbolic honors in Belgrade’s Alley of Meritorious Citizens, cementing his status as “one of the greatest and most beloved actors of Yugoslav and Serbian cinematography.” For a decade, that alley served as his official resting place and a monument to the film industry that built its postwar mythology on his roles.

Yet the story did not end there. Behind the scenes, the family pushed for something more intimate than a pantheon grave: fulfilling his “last wish…to be buried beside his wife, Julijana Lula Živojinović, in the family tomb” in his native Koraćica. By 2020, they had “obtained all the signatures and consent” for exhumation and transfer, only for the pandemic to halt everything just as it began.

Bureaucracy and infrastructure proved as stubborn as fate. A water pipe ran directly through the parcel where the grave was planned; only after it was moved and the land left to “settle” could the family restart the process. His son Miljko took over the logistics—ordering white marble in Aranđelovac and insisting that, when the day came, everything would be done “according to our old religious and traditional customs,” with the whole family present.

That day arrived in time for the 10th anniversary. Local media marked the date with breathless headlines—“He no longer rests in the Alley, remains transferred, son arrived first” and “here’s where his remains are NOW!”—as Koraćica replaced Belgrade as the focal point of remembrance.

In the end, the state keeps the legend; the village keeps the man. Koraćica, “always an oasis of peace” for Bata, is now where “his soul has finally found rest,” reunited “for eternity” with Lula.