The love story of actors Branka Petrić and Bekim Fehmiu began in the late 1950s, at the Belgrade Faculty of Dramatic Arts. Their love and marriage, which lasted for 43 years, it wasn’t love at first sight. For years before they fell in love, their paths crossed multiple times. They met at the acting academy, especially during dance classes.
“We were colleagues at the academy. He noticed me first, even though women usually make the first move. He was unassuming and gave no indication that he was attracted to any girl. But he attracted girls without doing anything, which was certainly intriguing. As for us, it wasn’t love at first sight. He was my colleague for several years. He was very diligent, serious, and fully dedicated to his studies. He was extremely slim, had beautiful hands, a graceful walk, and I liked his unusually long eyelashes for a man. He danced perfectly, and during dance classes at the academy, he and I were the most regular, so the professor liked to pair us up. In 1960, director Bojan Stupica paired us up as husband and wife in the play “Jaje” at Atelje 212. Since the rehearsals for that play often lasted late into the night, Bojan would often drive us home. At one point, Bekim asked me if I would be his girlfriend, and I replied, ‘You’re too young for me.’ We repeated that sentence many times later. During those years, I longed for other experiences, but I always liked Bekim, and he was often my knight. For example, during a trip to Split, late at night, we were returning from somewhere, and a group of guys started heckling us. Bekim took off his belt and started walking toward those young men. Of course, his fearlessness impressed me,” Branka Petrić once said about the beginning of her love with Bekim.
At one point, it seemed that there would be nothing between them because Bekim had a fight with Branka’s best friend, Bata Stojković, who insulted him with a derogatory term. Branka was very angry with him and didn’t even want to look at him.
However, their relationship warmed up again, especially during Bekim’s military service when Branka wrote to him frequently. In one of her letters, Branka invited him to her home by the sea in Novi Vinodolski. It was there, in the Petrić family’s home, after one of the dinners, that their true love story began. But this was not the end of their challenges.
During one of their theater tours in Moscow, Bekim became close to a beautiful Russian woman named Lyudmila. Because of this open infidelity, he incurred the anger of the entire theater ensemble, and on the way back from Moscow, he was left to sit alone in the train compartment. The uncertainty was broken by Branka herself, who decided to reconcile with him, greeting him with the words, “Zdravstvujte! You could have found someone less beautiful.” Bekim realized, as he later described in his autobiography, “This is the woman for me. I’ve decided. Definitely.”
Decades of shared love, happiness, and success followed. Bekim achieved immense fame after the film “I Even Met Happy Gypsies,” in which he played the masterful role of Bora. It propelled him to international stardom. He was nominated for the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival and received the Grand Prix of the Jury and the Critics’ Prize. Afterward, he had the opportunity to work with Irene Papas, Candice Bergen, Ava Gardner, Claudia Cardinale, Timothy Dalton, and many others. Throughout this time, Branka remained a great support to him.
They married in Rome and had their first son, Ulysses, in 1968, followed by their second son, Hedon, a few years later.
In the late 1980s, Bekim increasingly withdrew from public life, and the breakup of Yugoslavia deeply affected him. Branka remained his support and window to the world until his death in 2010.
