TIRANA, Aug. 22 – Zlata Numanagic, one of Serbia’s most popular actresses of the 1970s, has opened a restaurant in Saranda, becoming one of the first Serbians to run a small business in Albania, in a bold move breaking stereotypes in both countries.
Numanagic, now in her mid-60s, has chosen the coastal town of Saranda, one of the country’s most popular tourist destinations, to fulfill her early dream of running a restaurant.
It all started last year when the Serbian actress, a cinema and TV star in the former Yugoslavia, first visited Albania and stayed in Saranda, which she immediately fell in love with.
The Serbian actress says she has been impressed with the Albanians’ hospitality and is happy the new restaurant she and her friend have opened has been rated among Saranda’s top 10.
“For me Albanians were a payback. Albanians are a people so attentive, hospitable and loving I have never seen elsewhere and believe me, I have travelled a lot around the world,” she told a local Albanian newspaper.
“All Albanians, and really every one, wholeheartedly helped me handle things. And this is how we started living our youth dream with a restaurant in Albania,” she added.
Speaking about her restaurant, the actress said “the menu is mainly Balkan because we the peoples of the Balkans consume a lot of similar things.”
“We haven’t forgotten that customers love the specific Mediterranean diet. Our goal is to have a family-based restaurant with dishes somehow reminding of the food we used to eat when we were guests at our grandparents in our childhood. What I can say is that the consideration for us is very high because we have been rated tenth among more than 80 restaurants in Saranda and we’re very proud of this,” she adds.
Known as the pearl of Albanian Riviera, the southernmost Albanian district of Saranda is a top destination in Albania during summer, offering tourists a combination of rocky and sandy beaches as well as cultural heritage attractions such as the UNESCO World Heritage site of Ksamil and the Blue Eye spring.
The Serbian actress also performed with renowned Kosovo-Albanian actors Bekim Fehmiu and Faruk and Istref Begolli.
Last June, the Albanian and Serb Prime Ministers paid tribute to late Kosovo actor Bekim Fehmiu whom they say has left irreplaceable marks in the strained Albanian-Serbian relations. In a joint statement on the artist’s 80th birth anniversary, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic said “Fehmiu’s life and art testifies that we can communicate, understand and learn from each other and can find happiness and co-existence, building a bright future for the next generations.
Since late 2014, when Rama became the first Albanian Prime Minister to visit Serbia in 68 years, the two Prime Ministers have intensified meetings to overcome barriers between the two countries and made efforts to boost cooperation at a time when Serbia is also normalizing relations with Kosovo after its independence in 2008.
The civil society organizations are also playing a key role in the normalization of Albanian-Serbia relations following a drone incident in a football match in October 2014 when relations between the two countries temporarily embarked on a Cold War status quo.
The Albanian Institute for International Studies and the European Movement Serbia, two leading think tanks in both countries, have established a joint Centre for Albania-Serbia relations to boost relations between the two countries and overcome stereotypes.
