FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION – THE BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM – OFFICIAL ENTRY –SERBIA

Screenwriter and director, was born in Belgrade (Serbia) in 1965. He graduated from the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad (Serbia), Department of Film Direction.

Subsequently, Milorad wrote or co-wrote and directed another six successful feature films, directed ten feature TV series, wrote two novels, and seven plays for Belgrade theaters, and he has been for years one of Chasers in the Serbian version of the famous ITV’s quiz „The Chase.“

Milorad’s graduation film, a documentary about a local punk legend, Satan Panonski (1991), was very successful and the only work from the ex-Yugoslavia invited to the Barcelona Biennial. His first feature film, the black comedy Mrtav ‘ladan (2002), had over 300,000 admissions in cinemas, and the following TV series was even more successful with the audience and re-runned numerous times.

This year marks the bicentennial of the birth of probably one of the best, but certainly one of the  most important rulers this country ever had, Duke Mihailo Obrenovic III. We think that life, and especially the tragic death of this great man, deserves at least one good film. Incredible, but largely unknown historical events surrounding the assassination of Duke Mihailo are a fantastic template for a deep and very emotional film story. The story respects established historical facts to the letter. We just supplemented them by adding our interpretations of what is not known and most probably never will be. In these parts in between, we imagined what could’ve happened. We filled the empty spaces, dealt with the artistic core, not at all with the history rehashing.

This is the film about the last seven days in the life of Duke Mihailo, with flashbacks about important historical events.