The Life and Deeds of the Immortal Vožd Karađorđe (1911)

Interesting facts

The Life and Deeds of the Immortal Leader Karađorđe, or simply Karađorđe, is a 1911 Serbian silent film directed by Ilija Stanojević and starring Milorad Petrović. It was the first feature film released in Serbia and the Balkans. Petrović portrays the eponymous rebel leader Karađorđe, who led the First Serbian Uprising of 1804–1813.

Production

Serbia's first movie theatre, the Paris Cinema, located inside the eponymous Hotel Paris, at Belgrade's Terazije Square, was opened by the hotelier Svetozar Botorić in December 1908. Up until that point, films could only be viewed in traveling theatres which periodically visited Serbia's large cities. Very few members of the country's intelligentsia considered cinema to have any cultural value and fewer still deemed it financially rewarding.

Botorić was inspired to produce feature films after seeing Charles Le Bargy and André Calmettes's The Assassination of the Duke of Guise (French: L'Assassinat du Duc de Guise), an early example of narrative cinema. Up until that point, all films made in Serbia were documentary and ethnological films, covering events of historical significance such as official functions and state ceremonies to events of a more banal nature, such as common people o…

Karađorđe was based on a number of sources, namely an eponymous stage play by the playwright Miloš Cvetić, various biographies and hagiographies about the rebel leader, as well as the epic poem The Start of the Revolt Against the Dahijas (Serbian: Početak bune protiv dahija), which is traditionally attributed to the bard Filip Višnjić.

In order to lend the project greater credibility, Botorić enlisted actors from the National Theatre for the film. Milorad Petrović, a veteran stage actor, was given the role of Karađorđe. The child actor who played the adolescent Karađorđe was coincidentally also named Milorad Petrović. Jevrem Božović played five different characters, including Karađorđe's father and Karađorđe's rival Miloš Obrenović.

Karađorđe was directed by Stanojević. The film had a total budget of 20,000 dinars. Botorić had attempted to persuade the Royal Serbian Government to finance the film, but without success. Karađorđe was filmed in Belgrade and its environs. Principal photography lasted from mid-July to mid-August 1911. De Beéry, whom Botorić had employed to film newsreels in the past, was the film's cinematographer.

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