TV series about Serb heritage in Kosovo-Metohija: 189 shrines Albanians are trying to appropriate

The filming of a television series about the Serb cultural heritage in Kosovo and Metohija, a project by Filmske Novosti, is nearing completion in Kosovo and Metohija, says the director of this company, Vladimir Tomcic, who launched the initiative to produce this documentary testimony about 189 Serb shrines, including churches and monasteries in the southern Serbian province.

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The filming, he says, has been going on for two and a half years, and most of the material has been completed so far, which will be presented in half-hour television epidsodes, translated into several languages, including Albanian, while the first season of the series is expected to air on RTS early next year.

Tomcic recalls that next year will mark the 700th anniversary of the Serbian Orthodox Decani Monastery, located in Kosovo, and seven centuries since the death of King Milutin, known for his endowment. Tomcic points out that the series is especially important as a documentary testimony against the attempts to seize the Serb cultural heritage in Kosovo and Metohija, which representatives of some other nations, most often Albanians, want to present to the global public as theirs through expensive but deceptive projects.

The Church of Our Lady of Ljevis / Photo: Tanjug/Zoran Zestic

He thus recalls a recently broadcast documentary made by the Albanian television TOP, entitled, "The Great Serbian Historical Deception - How the Serbs Stole Albanian History" - in which historical facts are falsified with the aim of promoting a Greater Albania policy.

"The team, which is producing the entire Filmske Novosti series, includes university professors, academics, Serbian Orthodox Church priests, Serbs living in Kosovo and Metohija," says Tomcic, adding that the TV series will be translated into English, French, German, Russian, Chinese, and Albanian.

"I am especially glad that our recorded materials will be translated into Albanian, so that a part of the local population in Kosovo and Metohija can get acquainted with the relevant facts regarding the Serb cultural heritage in that area."

Vladimir Tomcic / Photo: Nikola Tomic

According to him, before the start of filming in Kosovo and Metohija, the team of documentarians he leads met with great understanding from the late Patriarch Irinej, Bishop Teodosije, the Ministry of Culture and Information, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, and the Institute for Cultural Monuments.

He says that the filming about Serb shrines in Kosovo and Metohija started in Kosovska Mitrovica.

Visoki Decani Monastery / Foto: Tanjug/ Zoran Zestic

"Our intention was to first deal with the north of Kosovo and Metohija. We arrived in Banjska, Sokolica, Duboki Potok... and then we headed south and persistently filmed, site by site. Turns out we never had a problem. We knew that we were not welcome in Musutiste, Devic and Novi Brdo, but accompanied by Italian KFOR soldiers, we managed to film at those sites as well," said Tomcic.

Tomcic added that he traveled the entire territory of Kosovo and Metohija in a car with Belgrade license plates, and it sometimes happened that he would get lost.

"There the names of places are written in Albanian and Serbian on large boards. In most cases, the names in the Serbian language are painted over with black paint. In those moments when it happened that I would 'miss' a road, older Albanians would direct me where to go, speaking Serbian. Younger Albanians rarely speak Serbian in Kosovo and Metohija," Tomcic stresssed.

Monastery Gracanica / Photo: Shutterstock

He hopes that the TV series will resonate outside the borders of our country and that it will contribute to the protection of the Serb cultural heritage in Kosovo and Metohija, and points out that RTS also gave assistance to Filmske Novosti in this important job by providing its entire archive to Hram Television from Belgrade and to local journalists from TV stations in Kosovo and Metohija - TV Most, TV Puls and TV Herc.

See more details in the video at the top of the page

(Tanjug.rs)