The life and deeds of the immortal leader of Karageorgii

Production

Scripting

The idea to create a film about Karageorgii Petrovich came to businessman Svetozar Botorich, who opened a theater in Belgrade in December 1908 ^[2] , after watching the 1908 film “The Murder of Duke Giza”. Botorich wanted to "present history in a new environment, recreating old myths along the way that were characteristic of the first century of cinema." However, he immediately faced difficulties, due to the fact that at the beginning of the 20th century, cinema was considered "meaningless entertainment that does not carry any cultural value." In response to this, Botoric decides to create a film about some important historical event (the First Serbian Uprising was just right for the screen version). Ilya Stanoevich agreed to direct the film, since he already worked with Botorich. ^[3] Louis de Biri was chosen as the cameraman of the film (once also worked with Botoric). ^{[2] [3]}

The script was written by Chira Manok, Ilya Stanoevich and a certain “Savkovich” (the real name is unknown). ^[4] At the time of writing the script, the historical information and biographies of Karageorgia, the production of Milos Svetić and the Serbian folk poem “The beginning of the uprising against the Dakhis” were used. ^[one]

Casting

To provide the film with a professional game, Botoric hired actors from the National Theater of Serbia to play roles in the film. ^[3] Some of the actors did not act in films at all.

The role of Karageorgii went to the theater actor Milorad Petrovich ^[4] , and Stanoevich himself played two roles: the Turk and the murderers of Karageorgii - Vuzhitsa Vulitsevich. ^[5] . Sava Todorovich portrayed a large number of Turkish dignitaries. The roles of Hajduk Velko and Marinko, the brother of Karageorgii, went to Dragolyub Sotirovich. Vukosava Zhurkovich, Dobrika Milutinovich and Alexander Miloevich played the roles of the mother of Karageorgiy, Dzhanko Katic and Matei Nenadovich, respectively. ^[6]

Filming process

The film is intended to "enhance national feelings and triumph of the monarchy," Botoric believed. ^[one]

The film was shot in the period from August to September 1911, along with filming of nature on the Sava River, Belgrade Fortress and fields. The interior was shot in the countryside next to the Paris Hotel in Belgrade. ^[4] Also, more than 1000 sets were made for the film. ^[5] Costumes were provided by the National Theater of Serbia. The cavalry of the Serbian army participated in the battle scene. ^[four]

Movie Release

The film was edited in the Paris branch of Pathé Studio. ^[4] The film was released with a duration of 90 minutes and titled “The Life and Deeds of the Immortal Leader of Karageorgia” ( Serbian Život i dela besmrtnog vožda Karađorđa ^[7] , Belly and deeds of the immortal leader Karaђorђa). ^{[1] [5]}

The film premiered on October 23, 1911 at the Paris Hotel ^[8] . Thus, the film became the first Serbian full-length film. ^[9] Later, the film was shown with the shortened name “Karageorgiy” ^[3] in Smederevo, Nis and Valievo in 1912, in Skopje in 1915 and in Sarajevo in 1919. In 1925, the film was re-released in Belgrade. ^[four]

It is known that the film in Serbia was a commercial success. They suggest that the Serbian government saw the film as a way to “restore the myth” about its protagonist and founder, who recently consolidated his power, the Karageorgievich dynasty. ^[3]

After a copy of the film was found, Professor Nevena Dakovich considered the film from a modern point of view, describing it as follows:

From today's point of view, this is the same work of art, a historical performance with live pictures, <...> emotionally expressed intertitles. Foreseeing similarities with the Serbian historical productions of the 1930s, the film kindles national feelings and consciousness, <...> glorifies and makes the past a myth <...>. ^[10]

The historian Vlastimir Sudar described the film as “advanced at that time”, calling the film “a large-scale epic about a historical event with a large share of myths.” ^[3]

Film Restoration

The film was last shown in 1928 to Serbian immigrants in the United States. ^[11] A copy of the film existed until 1947-48, until it was destroyed by its owner (the copy was dumped on the Danube ) in order to avoid persecution by the communist authorities, which were already entrenched in Yugoslavia after the exile of the Karageorgivichs during the Second World War. ^[5]

For many decades, the picture began to be considered lost, but a copy of the film was found in the archives of Austria on July 16, 2003 by Alexander Erdelyanovich and Radoslav Zelenovich on behalf of the Yugoslav Film Archive. ^{[11] [3]} They spent 3000 hours (or 125 days) on the restoration of the tape, which was slightly damaged due to the humidity that was maintained in the warehouse. ^[10] If the original version was a meter of 1800 meters, then the found copy was much shorter. ^[4] Also, there were no intertitles. According to Erdelyanovich, he and Zelenovich were able to recover from 80 to 90 percent of the tape. As a result, the restored version turned out to be 62 minutes long. ^[6] After the restoration, for the first time in 75 years, the film was shown on Serbian television. ^[eleven]

Notes

Literature

• Dakovich, Nevena (2010) “Memoirs on the past and present” (English) . ISBN 978-90-272-3458-2 .
• Norris, David A. (2009) “Belgrade: A Cultural History” . ISBN 978-0-19-970452-1 .
• Sudar, Vlastimir (2013) “The Life and Work of Alexander Petrovich” (English) . ISBN 978-1-84150-545-9 .

Links

• "Restaurisana kopija filma Karađorđe" (Serbo-Horv.) . November 26, 2011
• Kozanovich, Dejan "Karađorđe u bioskopu" (Serbo-Horv.) . February 12, 2004
• Maksivovich, D. "Završena potraga za Crnim Đorđem" (Serbo-Croatian) . October 7, 2003
• Milivojevic, V. "Filmski Lepenski vir" (Serbo-Horv.) . February 10, 2004
• Vukelic, Milan “Sa„ Karađorđem “je srpski film bio na evropskom vrhu 1911.” (Serbo-Croatian)
• The Life and Deeds of the Immortal Leader of Karageorgii on the Internet Movie Database