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like a lying person, and hides in the attic with two rifles. After the vampire enters the mill, he grabs a handful of flour, inspects it and sits by the fire. After some time he jumps on the timber believing it is the sleeping miller. Realizing that he was tricked, the vampire shouts: "Hey, Sava
SavanoviÄ, after ninety years of being a vampire, never have you remained dinnerless the way you did tonight!" Strahinja fires his rifles, forcing Sava to scream and disappear. While in the film the villagers nail the stake through the coffin without opening it, in the story they open it and spot two rifle wounds on the vampire's chest that are almost healed.
317:
him. In the evening, they take
Radojka away from her home and bring her to Zarožje, escaping infuriated Živan. The whole village welcomes the couple and the villagers start to prepare the wedding. In accordance with an old custom, an old woman is tasked with guarding the house in which the bride-to-be is staying, in order to prevent the couple from consummating their relationship before marriage. However, Radojka accepts Strahinja's offer to visit her during the night. As the sun is setting down, the strange sounds are heard once again.
300:. Strahinja approaches Živan, asking for Radojka's hand in marriage, but Živan banishes him from his yard. Disappointed, Strahinja bids farewell to Radojka and leaves his village. While passing through Zarožje, he meets the villagers discussing the cursed mill and accepts their offer to become the new miller. He spends the night in the mill, but stays in the mill's attic. Horrified by the vampire's visit, he falls from the attic into bags of flour, but survives the night.
284:
sounds coming from the woods. While he sleeps, a millstone suddenly stops working and a strange human-like creature with black hands, hairy face and long teeth enters the mill. It grabs a handful of flour, and after inspecting it, attacks Vule and kills him by biting his neck. The millstone is seen starting to turn again. Vule's body is discovered the following morning by one of the peasants from the nearby village of
580:. However, as Serbian writer and film and literary critic Dejan OgnjanoviÄ stated: "Those two early films are known today only to the biggest film lovers. At the time, the audience didn't perceive them as horror films: on the contrary, the records reveal that the audience viewed them as boring and incomprehensible.
547:
Upon its release, the film received large attention by the
Yugoslav public. The reactions of the film critics were mixed: part of them praised the film and compared it to the best works of horror in world cinema, while the other part criticized the director's and TV Belgrade's intention to scare the
526:
While in the film the villagers conclude the millers were killed by the vampire Sava
SavanoviÄ, in the story it is Strahinja who discovers that the creature killing the millers is a vampire and manages to discover its name. He drags a timber into the mill and covers it with a blanket, making it seem
291:
The film turns to a romance between
Radojka and a poor young man named Strahinja. The two meet seecretly, as Živan refuses to approve their relationship. In the meanwhile, the mayor of the neighboring Zarožje, the village priest and several villagers discuss the death of their miller. It is revealed
325:
of
Radojka in her vampiric form climbs out of it, with the same stake-made wound between her breasts. While she climbs out of the hole, Strahinja manages to impale her with the stake. The villagers wake up after a night of celebrating. Realizing that Strahinja sneaked into Radojka's room, they joke
316:
through the coffin and attempt to pour holy water into the hole. However, a white butterfly escapes out of the hole. The villagers do not manage to catch it, but are nevertheless satisfied as they believe they killed the vampire. During the celebration in the village, they promise
Strahinja to help
320:
The old woman guarding the girl falls asleep, and
Strahinja manages to sneak by her. As he undresses sleeping Radojka, he discovers a bloody hole under her breasts. Radojka opens her eyes and transforms into a hairy creature with sharp teeth. She jumps onto Strahinja's back and leads him to Sava's
308:
through the area. They realize Živan is the only man in the region to own a black stallion, so Zarožje mayor goes off to borrow it. Mayor asks Živan why he refused to approve of
Radojka's and Strahinja's marriage, but Živan stands firm in his decision. Radojka hears the birdlike sounds and follows
538:
The most prominent difference between the story and the film is that in the story
Radojka does not turn into a vampire. After Sava SavanoviÄ is killed and Strahinja and Radojka are wed, the celebration is visited by Živan, who, realizing he has no other choice, makes peace with the couple and the
530:
While in the film the vampire(ss) is depicted as a hairy, dark-skinned creature, in the story Sava SavanoviÄ is described as a "rather tall man with a blood-red face" and "a linen cloak across his shoulders, falling down his back to his heels". When the villagers open the coffin, they find Sava's
303:
In the morning, the villagers visit the mill and find Strahinja alive. He tells them that he saw the creature, and the villagers are now convinced it was Sava SavanoviÄ, who died decades ago. The villagers visit the oldest woman in a neighboring village to ask her if she knows anything about Sava
489:
and the heroic, renovating post-World War II enthusiasm. We were aware that we would never again get an opportunity to make a film. That's when I decided to change the genre. I went to television, where the people were different. At the time, Yugoslav film producers were people who knew nothing
283:
Vule, strange sounds are heard outside the mill, Vule believing they are coming from some bird. The two spot Živan's daughter Radojka on the hill with her sheep and Vule comments how beautiful she is, stating that she looks "like a she-butterfly". During the night, Vule once again hears strange
607:
did not influence our cinema much, because our cinema stands stubbornly firm in its artistic approach and defends itself from the horror genre, seeing it as something allegedly less serious, less potent and artistically less valuable." Both of them, however, agree that
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widely remembered as "the scariest film ever" by a number of people across former Yugoslavia. After the film was first aired, there were numerous rumors across Yugoslavia about people dying of heart attack while watching the film, but none of them was ever confirmed.
603:, although a pioneering work of Serbian and Yugoslav horror film, had little influence on Serbian and Yugoslav cinema in that the film's popularity didn't result in horror genre gaining more acceptance among Serbian and Yugoslav filmmakers. RadivojeviÄ stated: "
35:
513:
KadijeviÄ found the strange sounds that can be heard throughout the film with the help of the workers of Television Belgrade musical department. The sounds used were the recordings of a species of birds which lives in the uninhabited areas of
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SavanoviÄ. She reveals to them that Sava was buried in a crooked ravine under a crooked elm tree. After unsuccessfully attempting to find Sava's grave, villagers decide to use an old way of tracking down a vampire's grave, by guiding a black
494:, as the protagonists of an ideological conscience which stopped anything which wasn't in accordance with the desired image of the revolutionary past from appearing in films. That's when I moved to the historical and fantasy genres.
534:
In the original story, the narrator explains that the butterfly escaping from Sava's body "could not harm grown people" and that it "had been taking life of children from Zarožje and OvÄina long time before it disappeared".
312:
Strahinja and Zarožje villagers take the stallion through a ravine, and the horse reveals the location of the grave. They start digging and find a coffin. While the priest reads a prayer, they nail a
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In a 2023 interview, KadijeviÄ stated that at the beginning of the 1970s he was forced to turn away from cinema and venture into directing for television, as he has been a prominent figure of the
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is basically a dreary TV drama, which can be viewed as a horror film in retrospective, as a part of KadijeviÄ's poetics and as a part of studies of horror motives in our cinema.
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and laugh, unaware that the couple is not in the house. Strahinja is shown lying motionlessly on the ground with a butterfly in his hair moving its wings.
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and so onāwere described as the representatives of the "Black Wave", as we were, mildly and restrainedly, critical of this apologetics of both the
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that Vule is the fourth miller to be killed in the mill over the course of one year, and the villagers suspect that the men were killed by a known
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was not the first Yugoslav film with horror elements. It was preceded by two films, both also directed by KadijeviÄ for Television Belgrade,
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grave, where she forces him to remove the stake out of the coffin. While he does so, she collapses on the ground. The coffin opens, and a
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774:"Film i ÄorÄe KadijeviÄ: Pola veka "Leptirice", ostvarenja koje je 'veÄi utisak ostavilo na gledaoce, nego na kinematografiju'"
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510:. The 19th century mill that appears in the movie is still in its original location. The film was made in less than a month.
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is often described as "the first real horror" made in Serbia and Yugoslavia, cited as the pioneering work of the genre in
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made a lasting impression on the Yugoslav audience. The fact that it was the first Yugoslav film of its kind made
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844:"ÄorÄe KadijeviÄ: 50 godina od filma koji je uplaÅ”io celu Jugoslaviju", Nova S official YouTube channel
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them into the forest. She is shown lying on the ground sleeping, waking up with a smile on her lips.
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a horror film, and that he had never been interested in horror as a genre. He stated that he viewed
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is often viewed as "the first real horror film" in the history of Serbian and Yugoslav cinema.
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and proclaimed one of the top Serbian and Yugoslav horror films by critics and audience alike.
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body preserved "as if laid there yesterday", with blood-red skin and "stuffed like a turkey".
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movement and the authorities' censorship in cinema was starting to strengthen. He stated:
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audience, large part of which was still traumatized by events of World War II.
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717:"Leptirica (The She-Butterfly) (Yugoslavia Horror Film English Subtitles)"
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dealing with the presence of metaphysical evil in the human conscience.
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KadijeviÄ stated on several occasions that he had never considered
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Zarožje villagers, and the newlyweds return to their homevillage.
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Serbia, RTS, Radio televizija Srbije, Radio Television of.
734:"Prvi jugoslovenski horor film na festivalu "Odraz strave""
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976:. Mladenovac: Presing. pp. 183ā184.
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245:first Yugoslav film with horror elements
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817:OgnjanoviÄ, Dejan (January 19, 2010).
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693:Željko BoÅ”njakoviÄ (April 15, 2023).
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271:on the edge of the forest, bringing
961:. Mladenovac: Presing. p. 184.
946:. Mladenovac: Presing. p. 170.
931:. Mladenovac: Presing. p. 152.
916:. Mladenovac: Presing. p. 169.
772:Nemanja MitroviÄ (April 15, 2023).
1000:Culture and Arts Program official
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1090:Films directed by ÄorÄe KadijeviÄ
465:All of us who made similar filmsā
239:(1880) written by Serbian writer
267:Grumpy landowner Živan visits a
1080:Films based on Slavic mythology
736:(in Serbian). December 13, 2022
543:Reception, influence and legacy
974:Tales of Fear and Superstition
959:Tales of Fear and Superstition
944:Tales of Fear and Superstition
929:Tales of Fear and Superstition
914:Tales of Fear and Superstition
896:Tales of Fear and Superstition
279:. While he converses with the
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1095:1970s Serbian-language films
582:The Gifts of My Cousin Maria
562:The Gifts of My Cousin Maria
588:too was an uncommunicative
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998:Radio Television of Serbia
796:"KadijeviÄ i srpski horor"
475:Aleksandar "SaÅ”a" PetroviÄ
798:(in Serbian). May 3, 2010
557:Darovi moje roÄake Marije
243:. Although not being the
157:Radio Television Belgrade
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1070:Serbian television films
972:GliÅ”iÄ, Milovan (2021).
957:GliÅ”iÄ, Milovan (2021).
942:GliÅ”iÄ, Milovan (2021).
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912:GliÅ”iÄ, Milovan (2021).
894:GliÅ”iÄ, Milovan (2021).
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506:, close to the city of
181:April 5, 1973
1065:Yugoslav fantasy films
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228:and Yugoslav director
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1055:Yugoslav horror films
409:as Sredoje, a peasant
224:film directed by the
185:1973-04-05TYugoslavia
140:Neva PaskuloviÄ-HabiÄ
1110:Films shot in Serbia
1050:Serbian horror films
647:Cinema of Yugoslavia
574:MomÄilo NastasijeviÄ
387:Aleksandar StojkoviÄ
370:as the village mayor
20:TV series or program
1100:Films set in Serbia
459:Yugoslav Black Wave
396:as Purko, a peasant
819:"Leptirica (1973)"
487:revolutionary past
448:as Vule the miller
422:as Äebo, a peasant
275:to be milled into
237:After Ninety Years
153:Production company
46:After Ninety Years
1075:Folk horror films
1045:1973 horror films
502:, near the river
413:Bogoljub PetroviÄ
374:Tanasije UzunoviÄ
232:and based on the
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776:(in Serbian)
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697:(in Serbian)
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994:(full film)
857:"Leptirica"
740:29 November
701:29 November
578:Filip David
442: [
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364: [
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234:short story
222:folk horror
219:made-for-TV
172:TV Belgrade
72:Directed by
1040:1973 films
1034:Categories
866:2022-06-19
861:www.rts.rs
824:2 December
802:2 December
780:4 November
663:References
453:Production
345:as Radojka
207:, transl.
148:63 minutes
124:Production
108:Yugoslavia
56:Written by
18:Yugoslavia
1020:Leptirica
1009:Leptirica
992:Leptirica
626:Leptirica
622:Leptirica
614:Leptirica
610:Leptirica
605:Leptirica
601:Leptirica
594:Leptirica
592:." Thus,
552:Leptirica
269:watermill
249:Leptirica
205:ŠŠµŠæŃŠøŃŠøŃŠ°
196:Leptirica
27:Leptirica
875:cite web
636:See also
590:art film
586:The Ward
570:The Ward
566:Å tiÄenik
357:as Živan
306:stallion
216:Yugoslav
82:Starring
42:Based on
1004:channel
1002:YouTube
719:. 1973.
508:Zvornik
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