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Reviews
Croatian Kings (2011)
Excellent history documentary series
I saw this surprising series at the end of 2011, in the time of its premiere broadcasting at Croatian Television. I was expecting another ecstatically patriotic overview on nation's history, but in first minutes I realized this is gonna be something completely different. Series is full of Europe's best experts in medieval and the objectivity of the whole story is unquestionable. Speaking of cinematography, the job is almost perfectly done - beautiful picture with mighty, epic-like scenes. Direction is also a strong side of the series - very resolute, unusually imaginative for a documentary. In some moments I had a feeling I'm seeing a Hollywood movie. There's maybe a slight over-enthusiasm in using a slow motion, but those scenes are so esthetically memorable that I can't judge director for insisting on these scenes. Particularly interesting are middle parts of episodes, obviously designed as a kind of pause of political history and giving a chance to medieval everyday life. In each episode we are witnessing various events in life of seven Croatian medieval peasants, designed as hilarious and vivid characters which are, in fact, telling us a story of less known facts on life of medieval common people. Opening credits, with sculptures of medieval kings coming alive in 21th century, is very strong and memorable. Supreme job!