Even today there are people who shout loudly when passing above the former watermill near the village of Zarožje at dusk, in order to dispel fears of Serbian vampire Sava Savano- vić. In order for a legend to have ente- red into the subconscious so much, it had to live for years, and the story of Sava lived. That’s because there were vampi- res before Sava in Serbian legend, but his story become famous thanks to the story of Milovan Glišić “After ni- nety years”. In it he describes Zarožje and the misadventures of local vampi- re Sava. It was based on the themes of this short that the first Serbian horror film, “Leptirica” (Butterfly) was created. Zarožje was a little village during Sava’s time, and still today it is a vi- llage beside the road from Valjevo to Bajina Bašta via Debelo brdo. The story began in the 19 th century. Sava Savanović was a cattle trader, weal- thy, handsome, brave and respected. He didn’t marry at a young age, and it was only in his later years that he li- ked the daughter of a merchant from the Valjevo area. The merchant did not even want to hear of the older su- itor, but Sava did not give up. The fat- her did not want to give her up at the cost of blood being dropped. Then Sava changed, became rigid and con- frontational. People began to avo- id him. He was rude to the servants in the house and towards his brother Stanko and his wife and children. Since he could not have the girl he wished, he decided to kill her. The night before the crime, Sava prepared his pistol and sat up all night waiting in a hut. His brother Stanko anticipa- ted a gruesome accident. He was sus- picious that Sava had stayed awake all night. When he saw at dawn that Sava was headed for the woods with his pi- stol, he got scared. He followed him in secret. When he encountered the shep- herdess, Sava asked if she wanted to run away with him to his house, where they would live in peace and love. The girl told him she would not because of her father and that he should leave her alone once and for all. Sava pulled out the pistol and shot her down. The shepherdess lay dead on the field, blo- od dripping down her back. Stanko saw the incident, stormed out of the bushes and began to hit
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