St. George Shoots the Dragon
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| Saint George Shoots the Dragon | |
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| Directed by | Srđan Dragojević |
| Produced by | Dušan Kovačević Lazar Ristovski Srđan Dragojević Milko Josifov Biljana Prvanović |
| Written by | Dušan Kovačević |
| Starring | Lazar Ristovski Milutin Milošević Nataša Janjić Bora Todorović Dragan Nikolić Milena Dravić Zoran Cvijanović Branislav Lečić |
| Music by | Aleksandar Saša Habić |
| Distributed by | Sveti Georgije Ubiva Aždahu |
| Release date(s) | September 2008 |
| Running time | 150 min |
| Language | Serbian |
| Budget | €5 million (estimated) |
| IMDb profile | |
St. George Shoots the Dragon is an upcoming Serbian WW1 war drama scheduled for release in september 2008[1]. The movie's director is Srđan Dragojević (director of Pretty Village, Pretty Flame) and the scriptwriter is Dušan Kovačević (scriptwriter of Underground).
With a budget of around €5 million[2], once released it will be the most expensive Serbian movie to date (not counting Yugoslav big-budget WW2 movies). Most of the funds for the movie have been donated by the governments of Serbia and Republika Srpska (the Serbian entity in Bosnia) who have deemed this movie to be of national importance.
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[edit] Plot
The movie starts with a battle against the Turks in the 1st Balkan war in 1912 and ends with the outbreak of WW1 in 1914 and the crucial Battle of Cer, the first allied victory in WW1. It is largely set in and around a small village by the Sava river at Serbia's border with Austria-Hungary.
The village is divided between able-bodied men that are potential army recruits and the many invalid veterans from the previous Balkan wars, and there is bitter animosity between the two groups which don't intermingle much with each other even though they live in the same village.
The central theme of the movie is a love triangle between the village gendarme Đorđe, his wife Katarina and the young war cripple Gavrilo who once had a love affair with Katarina before he went to war and lost his arm in battle, and with the arm partly also his lust for life. Even though Katarina in the meantime married Đorđe, she still has affection for Gavrilo which is a source of friction between them two.
On the onset of WW1, all able-bodied men in the village are recruited for combat. Left in the village are only women, children and invalids from previous Balkan wars. Rumours start circulating that the invalids in the village are trying to take advantage of the situation by making their moves on the women in the village, the wives and sisters of the recruited men. These rumours reach the villagers at the front and in order to prevent mutiny the army staff decides to recruit the invalids as well and send them to the front line.
[edit] Cast
- Lazar Ristovski - Đorđe
- Milutin Milošević - Gavrilo
- Nataša Janjić - Katarina
- Bora Todorović - Aleksa
- Zoran Cvijanović - Mile Vuković
- Dragan Nikolić - Priest
- Boris Milivojević - Rajko Pevac
- Branislav Lečić - Tasić
- Mladen Andrejević - Teacher Mićun
- Srđan Timarov - Mikan
- Predrag Vasić - Vane the orphan
- Bojan Žirović - Žoja
- Milica Ostojić - First sister
- Milena Dravić - Aunt
- Milena Predić - Jelena
- Slobodan Ninković - Ninko Belotić
[edit] Trivia
- The movie St. George Shoots the Dragon is based on a highly acclaimed theatre play with the same name written in 1986 by Dušan Kovačević, who is also the movie's scriptwriter.[3]
- It is based on a true story that Dušan Kovačević was told by his grandfather Cvetko Kovačević. A young boy at the onset of WW1, he transported wounded and killed soldiers with an oxcart to a field hospital set up near the city of Šabac during the Battle of Cer.[3]
- The director Srđan Dragojević planned to make a movie based on the play already in 1998 and then again in 2001, but due to a lack of funds the first two attempts were unsuccessful.
[edit] TV miniseries
Radio Television of Serbia will broadcast a six-part TV miniseries based on the movie in late 2008, as part of marking the 90th anniversary of the end of WW1.[3]
