Karađorđe’s Death

 

 

SFRY

98′, 1989.

DIRECTED BY

Goran Paskaljević

STARRING

Predrag Miki Manojlović, Dragan Maksimović, Mirjana Karanović, Svetozar Cvetković

PRODUCED BY

Dragana Ilić, Goran Paskaljević, George Weiss

SCRIPTWRITER

Borislav Pekić, Goran Paskaljević

CINEMATOGRAPHER

Radoslav Vladić

EDITED BY

Olga Skrigin, Olga Obradov

 

 

The village of Vitanija (named after Bethany, the village near Jerusalem, where, according to the Bible, Lazarus was resurrected four days after death), September 1945, when World War II has just ended. The new revolutionary government begins the battle against folk customs and beliefs and initiates the process of “exorcising God”. The village school burned down in a fire, and the authorities break into the village church and drive out the priest. A revolutionary climbs the church and hangs the flag of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia on the cross. Other revolutionaries whitewashed the frescoes on the church walls. However, after each attempt to whitewash the walls, the frescoes miraculously returned. Communists perceived this as a counter-revolutionary action. Soon the teacher dies and a stranger appears in the village.

 


Goran Paskaljević (1947-2020) graduated in film directing at the famous Prague Film Academy (FAMU) in 1972. At first he worked at Television Belgrade, recording more than 30 documentary and fiction programs. He began his film career with the short fiction films The Legend of Lapot and Offspring, and in the following years he shot the award-winning feature films Beach Guard in Winter, The Dog Who Loved Trains, The Days on Earth are Flowing, Special Treatment and The Elusive Summer of '68. Due to the war in Yugoslavia and the unfavorable overall social atmosphere he went abroad in 1992, and after returning in 1998 he shot the film Cabaret Balkan. In 2001, Variety's guide to international film named him one of the five best directors of that year, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MOMA) organized a retrospective exhibition of his works in 2008.