Who Is Danina Jeftić

Danina Jeftić (born in Sarajevo on 9 November 1986) is a Serbian stage, film and television actress and a former handball player. She is best known for playing Rosa in the film “Montevideo, God Bless You!” (2010), directed by Dragan Bjelogrlić, a role that introduced her to a wide audience in Serbia and across the region.

She spent her childhood far from her birthplace. Because of the war, she left for Moscow as a child and then moved to Sydney, where she grew up and trained seriously in handball. She later returned to Serbia, studied acting in Belgrade and became one of the recognizable faces of domestic television series.

Today, audiences also know her as Klaudija Čarapina in the telenovela “Igra sudbine” (Game of Destiny), as well as for her roles in the series “Klan” and “Kamiondžije d.o.o.” (Truckers, Inc.).

Early Life and Childhood

Danina Jeftić was born in Sarajevo, then part of SFR Yugoslavia. She has a younger sister, Kristina. According to the newspaper Večernje novosti, her parents, her father Ljubiša and her mother Nada, once played handball in Sarajevo. Sport was therefore part of everyday family life from the very beginning.

When the war broke out in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the family left Sarajevo. In an interview with Hello magazine, the actress said she was about five years old when they went to Moscow. She spent two years there and finished the first grade of primary school. From that period, she says, she mostly remembers the Russian language.

From Moscow the family moved to Sydney, Australia. Sources differ on the exact years: Večernje novosti gives 1994, while the actress herself mentions that they lived in Australia for about eleven years. Today she speaks Serbian, English and Russian.

Handball Career in Australia

In Sydney, Danina Jeftić began training handball at around the age of twelve, at a club called “Beli orlovi” (White Eagles). According to her, her father founded the first handball team in Australia. Besides handball, she also played basketball and tennis.

At around fifteen she made it into an Australian national squad. She recalls that national coach John Olah noticed her because of her powerful shot. She played as a left winger, and her teammates nicknamed her “Munja” (Lightning) because of her speed and strong arm. She further refined her handball skills under coach Branko Rača at Red Star.

Sources differ on which competition she was a reserve for. In an interview with Informer, she said she was an official reserve for the Sydney Olympics. Večernje novosti, on the other hand, writes that she was on the list of Olympic team players and prepared for the 2003 World Championship. Wikipedia and IMDb state that she played for the Australian junior women’s team.

Around the age of seventeen or eighteen, she decided to end her sporting career. She cited injuries and bruises as reasons, as well as a lack of free time. Her parents, she says, were initially surprised by her decision.

Education

She completed secondary school in Sydney. When she gave up handball, she wondered what she wanted to study. At school she was a member of the drama club, so she decided to try acting.

Actress Nada Blam prepared her for the entrance exam at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. The actress said the exam was originally meant to be only a trial run before enrolling at some private faculty. She was nevertheless admitted to the Faculty of Dramatic Arts. Večernje novosti reports that she graduated in 2010 with top grades.

Early Career

The family returned to Serbia between 2003 and 2005, as sources differ (Večernje novosti and Glossy give 2003, Informer 2004, Wikipedia 2005). They settled in Jajinci, a suburb of Belgrade.

At first she appeared in smaller theatre productions. She received her first television role in 2008 in the series “Pare ili život” (Money or Life), broadcast on Radio Television Pink. She played Maja, while the lead role was played by Milutin Mima Karadžić. The series aired until 2010.

The Role of Rosa in “Montevideo, God Bless You!”

The real turning point in Danina Jeftić’s career came with the film “Montevideo, God Bless You!”. It was directed by Dragan Bjelogrlić, and the screenplay was written by Srđan Dragojević and Ranko Božić, based on a novel by Vladimir Stanković. The story follows the journey of the Yugoslav national football team to the first World Cup in 1930 in Montevideo.

According to her, all the girls from her generation were invited to the audition. The casting lasted twelve hours and included trying on costumes, makeup and hairstyles. Three months later, Bjelogrlić told her she had got the part.

She played Rosa, a young woman who works in her uncle Rajko’s tavern (played by Mima Karadžić) and is in love with the footballer Aleksandar Tirnanić, nicknamed Tirke (Miloš Biković). Besides Biković, the film starred Petar Strugar and Nina Janković.

The film was released in cinemas in late December 2010 and was a big box-office success. In February 2011, Blic reported that around 400,000 people had seen it, and more recent figures put the total at over 520,000 viewers. Serbia submitted it for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

For this role, Danina Jeftić was nominated for the FIPRESCI Serbia award and for the MTV Adria award for best actress. The role of Rosa continued in the series of the same name, which RTS began airing in February 2012, as well as in the sequel “Na putu za Montevideo” (On the Way to Montevideo).

Alongside Montevideo, in 2012 and 2013 she appeared in the series “Budva na pjenu od mora” (Budva on the Sea Foam), playing Hana. As she said in an interview with Hello magazine, she received the offer from Mima Karadžić, and accepted after a meeting and reading the script.

Career Break and Return to the Screen

At the height of her popularity, Danina Jeftić withdrew from acting. She explained her decision by her wish to devote herself to her family, since shoots can last as long as thirteen hours, making it hard to combine them with caring for a small child. She spent some time in Australia and later returned to Serbia.

During that time she did not make television projects, but she stayed active in the theatre. In film, she appeared in 2016 in a small role in the short film “Pobednik ostaje pobednik” (The Winner Stays the Winner) by Mima Vlaović, in which the lead roles were played by Sonja Kolačarić, Bojan Dimitrijević, Andrija Kuzmanović and Radovan Vujović.

Her real return to the small screen came in 2020. Directors Mihailo Vukobratović and Stanko Milošević entrusted her with the role of Klaudija Čarapina in the telenovela “Igra sudbine”, which has aired on Televizija Prva since January 2020. According to the website “To su samo filmovi”, audiences watched her in more than 450 episodes of the series.

During 2021 she filmed several series. She played Slavica in “Klan”, Đerasima in the RTS series “Kamiondžije d.o.o.” and Kata in the series “Dođi juče” (Come Yesterday). Director Jelena Bačić Jočić also entrusted her with the role of a young inspector in the series “Azbuka našeg života” (The ABC of Our Life), based on motifs from the novel by Mirjana Bobić Mojsilović.

Theatre Career

Alongside television, Danina Jeftić also built a theatre career. At Zvezdara Theatre she played Marica in the play “Sumnjivo lice” (A Suspicious Character), directed by Božidar Đurović. She also appeared in the play “Harold i Mod” (Harold and Maude) at the Belgrade Drama Theatre, and from March 2012 she performed in the play “Ludi od terapije” (Crazy About Therapy) at the Palilula Cultural Institution.

At the Belgrade Drama Theatre she played Katarina in the play “Ženska posla” (Women’s Business), which premiered on 14 March 2017. She also appeared in the play “Rijaliti obračun” (Reality Showdown), in which she plays the starlet Kokana, as well as in the play “Koferče” (The Little Suitcase) by Olja Đorđević.

Greatest Achievements

• The role of Rosa in the film “Montevideo, God Bless You!” (2010), which brought her national popularity.
• Igra sudbine (2020–2022): the character of Klaudija Čarapina in a telenovela that ran for several hundred episodes.
• The series “Klan”, “Kamiondžije d.o.o.” and “Dođi juče” (2021), filmed in a single year.
• Nominations for FIPRESCI Serbia and MTV Adria for best actress.
• The move from sport to acting: from Australia’s handball squad to the big screen in Serbia.

Personal Life

Danina Jeftić rarely talks about her private life, as she herself has stressed in interviews. She describes herself as close to her family: her parents and sister Kristina, who help her with her son.

She married the producer Aleksandar Kukanjac, with whom she has a son, Maksim. After the wedding and the birth of their child, the family temporarily moved to Australia. According to the Serbian Wikipedia, the marriage lasted until 2016, and the actress returned to Serbia with her son. She told Informer at the time that she divorced because the relationship was not going well and that she did not want to say more about it.

She lives and works in Belgrade.

Trivia

• She speaks Serbian, English and Russian.
• Besides handball, she also trained basketball and tennis.
• According to her, her family sold a sports academy in Sydney and bought a house in Jajinci.
• Her father, a handball coach, worked on founding the first professional handball league in Australia.
• As an acting role model, she named the Spanish actress Penélope Cruz.
• With her colleague Miloš Biković, she shared the award for acting couple of the year at the Film Encounters in Niš. Sources differ on the year, so it is omitted here.

Awards and Recognition

For the role of Rosa in the film “Montevideo, God Bless You!”, Danina Jeftić was nominated in 2010 for the FIPRESCI Serbia award for best actress. She was also nominated for the MTV Adria Movie Award in the same category. Sources differ on whether she also won this award: Wikipedia lists a nomination, while the actress mentions an MTV award in one interview.

Together with Miloš Biković, she also received the award for acting couple of the year at the Film Encounters in Niš, for their roles in the series “Na putu za Montevideo”.

Legacy and Influence

Danina Jeftić is one of the actresses whose career is often cited as an example of an unusual path: from professional sport to the acting stage. The character of Rosa remains tied to one of the most-watched domestic films of recent years, and the success of that story continued in the series and in the sequel “Montevideo, vidimo se!” (See You in Montevideo).

In recent years audiences have followed her in long-running television formats, which has kept her steadily on the small screen. Through her theatre work she maintains a connection with the stage where she began, and she remains active in the Serbian acting community.