One of the top pre-WWII Belgrade movie companies, „Artists Movies“ sponsored a film about Serbia, its sufferings and its victories in the First World War.  The film was called “Serbia’s Golgotha” and the first version of it was shown in 1930 with the title, “For the Honor of the Fatherland”.  Since there wasn’t enough documentary material, the film’s director and screenwriter made a reconstruction of the significant events.  The original film had no music and fell into oblivion.  A re-editing of the film with music consisting of hymns, marches and popular songs sung by the Serbs was executed and the result was this film:  “Serbia’s Golgotha:  Fire in the Balkans”.  A premiere of the new film was planned for the Spring of 1940, but it fell victim to the whims of the censors, who felt it portrayed Yugoslavia in a bad light to foreigners.  Another re-editing took place and it was finally cleared for distribution in August 1940.  It ran for just six days at the “Luxor” movie house, but was wildly successful.  The film was hidden during the Second World War and then turned over to the new government in 1944.  But this new government’s agenda was communist, not nationalist; and while the new federation was Serb dominated, films about Serb suffering were very much downplayed.  Eventually, this movie came back into the light after the death of Tito in the late 1980s.

APPROXIMATELY 81 MINUTES.  OVERALL QUALITY IS VERY GOOD, THOUGH MOST DEFECTS ARE DUE TO THE AGE OF THE FILMS USED.  

DVD-R IS SILENT WITH SERBO-CROATIAN INTERTITLES AND SWITCHABLE ENGLISH SUBTITLES.