09.12.2014.

Film "Serbia in the Great War" presented

Представљен филм „Србија у Великом рату“

At the Central Military Club of Serbia, a press conference was held on the occasion of the premiere of the documentary-live action film „Serbia in the Great War“ which chronologically describes successes, achievements, hardships and tragedy of the Serbian military, state and people in the Great War.

The joint project of the Ministry of Defence and Radio Television of Serbia was presented at the conference by Colonel Petar Boskovic, Head of the Public Relations Department of the Ministry of Defence, Ana Vucetic, Assistant Minister for Contemporary Arts of the Ministry of Culture and Information, and author of the film Sladjana Zaric.

According to Colonel Boskovic, cooperation with the team that worked on the film has lasted a long time.

- We worked together on the Milunka Savic project, and then we began a new task and accepted the challenge. It was an honor for the Ministry of Defence and the Armed Forces of Serbia to participate in this project, and members of the defence system have contributed with all their heart and power during the making of the film – Head of the Public Relations Department said.

Ana Vucetic stressed the importance of linking the ministries whose domains include the duty of fostering the memory of the heroism and suffering of our people in the Great War. She said that this creation has produced an audio-visual work that testifies in a new way about the hard times one hundred years ago.

Author of the film Sladjana Zaric said that the project was done chronologically and that it had been rather complex. It was shot in 13 countries, and the RTS press team was the first one after a hundred years to follow the path the Serbian military had crossed from 1915 to 1918.

- We chose locations based on photographs from the Great War. We were on Albanian mountains, in swamps, in Corfu, Thessaloniki, Dobro Polje – the mountain top from where the Thessaloniki Front was broken through. We filmed monuments and cemeteries where bodies of Serbian soldiers and civilians remained, and cemeteries of Serbian war military prisoners and civilians. The live action scenes are a reconstruction of important historical events and they are based on testimonies of contemporary individuals that remained written in historical books or war journals – the author said, stressing that, this way, the live-action scenes, the authentic photographs and archive frames represent a unique historical document.

In production of RTS and MFC “Zastava Film”, the project “Serbia in the Great War” was financed by the Government of Serbia as a part of marking of the centenary of the Great War, under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Information.

At the press conference, parts of the film were shown, with appearances by renowned actors, such as Voja Brajovic, Branislav Lecic, Nikola Rakocevic and Ljubivoje Tadic, and members of the Special Brigade of the Armed Forces of Serbia, Third Army Brigade and Military Academy cadets. Simulations of war battles were filmed on Pasuljanske livade and in Deliblatska Pescara. In the film, occurrences during the war are commented on by eminent Serbian and foreign historians and experts on the Great War in Europe.

The film “Serbia in the Great War” will premiere on December 15, on the day of marking the centenary of the Battle of Kolubara, on RTS Channel 1 in 21.00. Next year, the public service program will include the series of five episodes.