I was really looking forward to this film - there are not too many films where the storyline takes place immediately after the Battle of Kosovo, and about Princess Olivera nonetheless! The princess is a rather mysterious figure in Serbian history, as not much is known about Tsar Lazar's youngest daughter who married the Turkish Sultan in order to protect her people.
This TV film was an absolute disappointment, and let me count the ways:
The quality: Though I do understand this is was a television movie, it more of a documentary rather than film. In fact, it cannot be even called a documentary as there is not a single scientist or historian who appears and enlightens the viewers on interesting true facts. Instead, it is like a fairytale, without any evidence or explanation of how the princess helped her people or even her so- called 'wisdom'. You might as well have read a Wikipedia article about her.
The scenes were so painfully low budget, that in the Battle of Kosovo scene, there was only Tsar Lazar and two soldiers guarding his tent on the battlefield. Some cheap CGI to create an army would not have hurt, even the Turks have done it for their low-budget 'Suleiman the Magnificent' soap opera.
Acting and narration: There are only a few time-period scenes featuring actors who barely say a single word and the actress who plays the teenage princess has the same blank expression on her face throughout the historical sequences. The narrator is especially annoying, as all he does is walk around aimlessly, mumbling his lines without properly pronouncing the last word of his sentences.
Music: This was the worst of all. Whereas the whole movie consists of silent narration, choir music suddenly blares loudly in between scenes, shocking the audience. I had the mute the TV a number of times because I got tired of lowering the volume every time that 'music' came on.
I really wanted to like this film, but I couldn't. Bad film-making is bad film-making. One would expect national TV allocating a bit more money and professional hire to the creation of a movie about an important chapter of the country's history, rather than wasting it all on advertising.
This TV film was an absolute disappointment, and let me count the ways:
The quality: Though I do understand this is was a television movie, it more of a documentary rather than film. In fact, it cannot be even called a documentary as there is not a single scientist or historian who appears and enlightens the viewers on interesting true facts. Instead, it is like a fairytale, without any evidence or explanation of how the princess helped her people or even her so- called 'wisdom'. You might as well have read a Wikipedia article about her.
The scenes were so painfully low budget, that in the Battle of Kosovo scene, there was only Tsar Lazar and two soldiers guarding his tent on the battlefield. Some cheap CGI to create an army would not have hurt, even the Turks have done it for their low-budget 'Suleiman the Magnificent' soap opera.
Acting and narration: There are only a few time-period scenes featuring actors who barely say a single word and the actress who plays the teenage princess has the same blank expression on her face throughout the historical sequences. The narrator is especially annoying, as all he does is walk around aimlessly, mumbling his lines without properly pronouncing the last word of his sentences.
Music: This was the worst of all. Whereas the whole movie consists of silent narration, choir music suddenly blares loudly in between scenes, shocking the audience. I had the mute the TV a number of times because I got tired of lowering the volume every time that 'music' came on.
I really wanted to like this film, but I couldn't. Bad film-making is bad film-making. One would expect national TV allocating a bit more money and professional hire to the creation of a movie about an important chapter of the country's history, rather than wasting it all on advertising.
