Selo niklo iz mašte scenariste i dramskog pisca Gordana Mihića The village emerged in the imagination of screenwriter and playwright Gordan Mihić
most holy shrine; who declared Orthodox Christianity the national faith, who walked with a rope around his neck through a rag- ing mob in Constantinople after a failed up- rising against Byzantium. He wondered how the founder of the holy Nemanjić bloodline experienced con- flicts with his brothers over the throne, not knowing that the same conflicts would be played out after his death by his sons Vu- kan and Stefan. He wondered what sort of pain he felt, who looked death in the face so many times, when his youngest son, Rastko, left him and went to the Holy Mount Athos. He considered why sovereigns of the world’s strongest powers at the time allowed their daughters to be wed to the rulers of little Raška, now Serbia, who had just fought for their place under the sun, but also what life was like so many centuries ago for ordinary people, peasants, warriors, travelling artists, painters and court servants; what they ate, how they mourned, how they rejoiced about summer days and their children’s laughter. In order to tell this story, Gordan Mi- hić worked diligently, travelled around the former Raška and studied history books. He had to handle disagreements between his- torians regarding different interpretations of the rulers’moves, dates and years, about the calculated motives for wars... As a writ- er, he knew he didn’t need to write a histor- ical textbook, but rather a story about how some events could have happened. And after working day and night for a year, his wish came to life and flowed into theTV series„The Nemanjićs – birth of a king- dom”, which will be broadcast on Radio-Tele- vision Serbia this autumn, to commemorate the 800 th anniversary of the coronation of the first Serbian king, Stefan the First Crowned.
W hat kind of horsemen are these, who with shields and spears pass casually through the forest? Where did these wooden structures, barns with hay and ob- servation towers come from? Who are those knights who battle with maces in a medieval village that has - sprouted out of nowhere, in the Lipovica forest near Belgrade? A village that emerged in the imagination of screen- writer and playwright Gordan Mihić, and his old desire to tell the story of the dawning of the greatest dynasty in Serbian history. To revive the time of the great Prince Ste- fan Nemanja and his sons, and to recall the ascension to the throne of the first Serbian King, Stefan the First - Crowned. Gordan Mihić long desired to unrav- el what were the sufferings, delusions and obsessions that coloured the life of Stefan Nemanja, the man who united the Serbian state eight centuries ago, erected Hilandar Monastery on Mount Athos and made it the
WHO ARE THE NEMANJIĆS? This medieval dynasty, which ruled Serbia from 1168 to 1371, is named after Stefan Nemanja, who founded the Serbian state in the 12 th century. Almost all rulers in this bloodline were proclaimed saints after their deaths, and standing out among their many endowments, monaste- ries and churches are those under UNESCO protection: Đurđevi Stupovi and Studenica monasteries, in Kosovo the monasteries of Gračanica, Visoki Dečani and the Peć Patriarchate, and Hilandar - as one of the holiest places, located in the autonomous monastic community of Mo- unt Athos. The Nemanjićs bore the first Serbian king, Stefan the First Crowned, the first writer, diplomat, and doctor - St. Sava, who successfully fought for the independence of the Ser- bian Orthodox Church from the Pope in the 13th century, and the first Serbian emperor, Dušan the Mighty, during whose reign Serbia occupied most of the Balkan penin- sula and had coastlines on three seas.
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