Starting tomorrow, the American streaming platform Netflix will have a Serbian film in its offer for the first time. Unclean blood – Sin of the ancestors directed by Milutin Petrović, under the title Bad Blood. Netflix is the largest video club in the world, it has over 10.000 movies of all kinds and series, more than 200 million subscribers in 190 countries on all continents, it has several offices in Europe but none in this region, so their focus is not on our market - all it simultaneously describes and determines success Impure blood, a film from Serbia, to come to Netflix.
Describing how to get on Netflix, who chooses films, based on which criteria, Snežana van Houwelingen, co-founder (with Goran Stanković) of the company "This and that" which produced Impure blood, says that "there is no classic competition. Their criteria include, first of all, a high level of film production, and I am glad that the production of domestic film content has reached the level of foreign ones and that we can stand side by side with them. They are supplied with a detailed specification, very detailed technical parameters of image, sound, subtitles and design. It meant a completely new and challenging experience for us."
Historical drama Impure blood – the sin of the ancestors it is based on a long-lost script Vojislav Nanovic which she adapted Milena Markovic, written based on the works of Bora Stanković, and tells about the beginning of the downfall of the old Serbian landlord family and the Ottoman Empire, and the creation of a young Serbian principality.
Snezana van Houwelingen thinks that it was the film's plot that made Netflix choose it. "It is set at a time when we lived together with Turks, Albanians, people of various religions and nationalities. The film is about us, and it concerns the entire Balkans and an important period in our common history. It tells about an influential leader of the Serbian minority in the Ottoman Empire who tries to win the independence of his people and therefore makes a series of moves that have disastrous consequences for his descendants. Also, this is a story about the independent position of women in that period, which unfortunately is not a very distant history."
In addition to Serbian, Turkish and Albanian languages are spoken in the film, many international actors were also engaged, so this multinationality in the subject of the film and production was "significant for the acquisition of our film", believes Snezana von Houwelingen, but she also emphasizes "the efforts invested by our partners at Videmite." The script required more foreign actors than were hired, but, given that it was filmed during the pandemic and travel restrictions, "many of our actors learned Turkish and Albanian, and they were very convincing."
The contract with Netflix enables streaming in the territories of Central Europe, Eastern Europe and Turkey, in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Slovenia, Bosnia, Serbia and Turkey.
Does the contract specify the advertising and promotion of the film? Snezana von Houwelingen explains that a cooperation agreement was concluded as for any purchase of certain rights to broadcast a film. "The very fact that the film is on Netlix caused a lot of media attention both in our country and in the surrounding area. Netflix is a big platform and they don't do campaigns for individual movies, but have an algorithm that suggests content to watch based on subscribers' affinities."
When asked how it is possible Impure blood the first Serbian film on Netflix, our interlocutor answers indirectly. He mentions the great writer and the fame of his works that were the basis for the script, and the quality of the production, top authors and great actors Impure blood all of which resulted in "a film whose quality will be in line with world productions."
The state did not support the candidacy Impure blood for Netflix, but, according to Snezana von Houwelingen, "the Republic of Serbia supported this film in a competition for co-financing films with a national theme. The Film Center of Serbia and Media Creative Europe also supported the development of the project".
Production "This and That" was founded in 2008 with the intention of making "films and series about important social issues that we believed could make society better." So far they have signed TV series The morning will change everything, Mom and Dad play war, Unclean Blood, and movies A good woman, Diana Budisavljević's diary, Asymmetry, Occupied cinema …
Snezana von Houwelingen expects that because of Netflix, it will be easier to market future projects, including TV series Saber directed by Goran Stanković and Vladimir Tagić, movies Mother Mara directed by Mirjana Karanović, Excursion directed by Miroslav Terzić and Our Father directed by Goran Stanković.
"On the other hand, we are happy to pave the way for other domestic films and TV series from this area and we sincerely want our cinematography to be represented as much as possible on Netflix and other world streaming services."
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