Serbian historical drama. Original title: Sedef magla (Седеф магла)
1882. Jelena Ilka Marković attempted to assassinate King Milan Obrenović in the Cathedral. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison and was found dead in her prison cell shortly afterwards – the official version is that she hanged herself with a towel from her bed. Evidence suggests that suicide was not possible.
Seven years later, on the same day, two bodies were found far apart. It turns out that both murders were connected to the assassination in the Cathedral. The case is reopened. A failed lawyer and the head of the Belgrade police investigate the “suicide,” each for a different reason.
Historical footnote:
Thirty-four-year-old King Milan suddenly abdicated the throne in 1889 (the same year the movie’s investigation takes place), handing it over to his twelve-year-old son. No satisfactory reason has ever been revealed, but he settled down to a life of comfort in Paris, seducing women, eating French food, and parading around in medals and fancy ceremonial sashes, which seems like as good a reason as any. His most famous affair was with Jennie Jerome (Winston Churchill’s mother).
After about five years of that sybaritic existence, he returned to Serbia, established a rapport with his son, and was given new responsibilities in the country. Unfortunately for him, the Serbian pro-Democratic opposition blamed him for the increasingly authoritarian rule of his son, and he was the target of yet another assassination attempt in 1899. He finally got the message. He took his medals and sashes to Vienna, where he would live briefly and die peacefully.
His son, who wore even more sashes and medals, and added a silly hat to his costume, was assassinated in 1903, because assassination was then the national pastime for Serbians. In fact, World War 1 itself was triggered in 1914 when another Serb killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne.
It wasn’t just Serbia. Assassination seemed to be all the rage in those decades before WW1. Two American presidents were killed in the same era (Garfield in 1881, McKinley in 1901).
Milica Jankovic
Miona Markovic
