23.01.2012.

Announcement of the Series "Military Academy"

Towards the beginning of broadcasting the series "Military Academy", from 28 January at the first channel of RTS, in the Military Club today a press conference was held where the speakers were the Defence Minister Dragan Sutanovac, Dejan Zecevic, the Series Director, representatives of the Military Academy, the Public Service and the Production House NIRA PRO, as well as actors and actresses.

Speaking about the series "Military Academy" Minister Sutanovac said that this is a project that should demystify one institution in our society that has been existing 163 years, to become in recent years something completely new, contemporary and modern.

"I think that the interest in the series will be great, and I'm sure that it will be a big surprise for those who have completed the Academy. The fact that today we have here the same number of actors and actresses indicates that the Military Academy is living a new life, and this means that the Military Academy produces also women officers, which was not the practice in previous years, and which will, I believe, raise interest and positive response", Sutanovac said.

According to him, the importance of "Military Academy" is also in the fact that it will speak in a fresh and modern way about everything that happens in the Armed Forces today, not looking at it from the perspective of the past and the history.

"We watched the first two episodes with the students of the Academy, and based on their positive reactions I have the impression that the series will achieve great success. I hope that this will be only the beginning of joint projects, and that we can expect in the future more of similar ventures which will talk about contemporary Serbian military", the Minister of Defence said.

Director Dejan Zecevic said that he had great satisfaction to have the opportunity to be involved in this project. What was the hardest and the most demanding task for him was the casting. They worked on it seriously, he said, and then they went into an adventure, primarily a pleasant one but with some difficult moments.

- I hope that this positive energy that we had will be also seen in the small screen and that the public will react as we expected. I believe that the series will remind the public of some moral values that are somewhat forgotten since the military on the one hand represents one aspect that is placed in the foreground, which is of course the defence, and the other is the moral aspect of the society.

Branislav Lecic, an actor who in the series plays the role of the Commandant of the Military Academy, is especially pleased that he was given the role of a man responsible for the education of cadets, officers-to-be of the Serbian Armed Forces.

-Military is the mirror of the situation in the country. That is absolutely right and therefore I am very proud to play in this series and that I received an invitation from Minister Sutanovac and from the whole team. Every state must have a very good military, a modern, contemporary one, to be democratic, charming, with all the human problems that exist inside. This is a great challenge for the whole society and we are now giving our contribution with this series, Lecic said.

The screenplay of the series which was filmed under the auspices and with the help of the Ministry of Defence and the Military Academy is based on true stories. The main characters entered the Academy from completely different reasons. In 16 one-hour episodes there will be shown life and work at that facility and the advantages and difficulties of the schooling of cadets who are to become officers of the Serbian Armed Forces.

Shooting of the "Military Academy", which lasted 130 days, involved more than 140 actors and 70 members of the camera crew. The series was filmed in the facilities of the military higher-education institution and the Military Medical Academy, in the barracks "Zivojin Misic" in Valjevo and "Milan Tepic" in Jakovo, at the training range "Pasuljanske livade" and the Batajnica Airport.

The screenplay was written by Gordan Mihic, directed by Dejan Zecevic, starring Ljubomir Bandovic, Nebojsa Milovanovic, Milos Timotijevic, Tamara Dragicevic, Branislav Lecic, Tijana Pecencic, Radovan Vujovic, Anja Stanic, and others.