THE TURKISH AMBASSADOR
Creator/Producer: Darko Lungulov
Production company: Papa Films
Country: Serbia
Format: 45' x 7
Genre: Crime, Drama, Period/Historical
A brave Yugoslav man gets killed while trying to stop the assassins of the Turkish ambassador. A controversial Yugoslav lawyer defends assassins blaming the police for accidentally killing the man.
The year is 1982, Yugoslavia, two years after President Tito's death, and the Yugoslav system is slowly disintegrating. The controversial lawyer SRDJA defends political dissidents of a dying system. His clients are tried under the notorious verbal crime law. His anger over injustice grows. He is under the surveillance of the State Security Service and constantly followed by the newly recruited, dissatisfied agent DUŠAN. Then in 1983, in the heart of Belgrade, a terrorist act occurred that had nothing to do with Yugoslavian politics. The two Armenian terrorists murdered a Turkish ambassador as revenge for what the Turkish government did 80 years ago. While the armed assassins tried to escape the crime scene, the bare-handed citizens started chasing them. Two more victims fell, a university student ŽELJKO and the retired Yugoslav Army COLONEL BRAJOVIĆ. The Service agent Dušan was there and got involved in the shooting. Srdja, seeking personal revenge against the politicized judicial system, takes the case. He leads the defense of Armenians, using the ineptitude of a dying system. His defense is based on plausible theory. The unnamed policeman accidentally killed the brave university student Željko. That unnamed policeman was Dušan. While continuing to surveillance him, Dušan approaches Srdja privately. He pleads with him desperately that he didn't kill the student but is not allowed to testify by The Service. As the trial progresses, Srdja manipulates the prosecution using the information he obtained from Dušan. The unusual relationship with Dušan continues and provokes Srdja to question his commitment to justice. He recognizes that he is not much different than the fanatics he defends, he is willing to do anything for his cause, no matter how morally wrong.
CineLink Drama - pitch presentation
DARKO LUNGULOV / IMDB
DARKO LUNGULOV's debut feature, HERE AND THERE, USA-Serbian-German coproduction, won the Tribeca 2009 Best NY Narrative Award and received critical acclaim from The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, and The New York Times. It was one of the early Netflix streamed movies, and the film is now available on Amazon Prime. It won 20 awards at more than 50 international festivals, was theatrically released in the USA, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, and Greece, and sold to 21 territories. Fipresci Serbia voted Darko for Best Director in 2009. Darko's next film, MONUMENT TO MICHAEL JACKSON (2014), a Serbian-Croatian-German-Macedonian coproduction supported by Eurimages and MEDIA, had its world premiere at the Karlovy Vary and received critical acclaim from Variety. Subsequently, it won the Best Eastern European Film Award at the Santa Barbara IFF at its US premiere. At Nashville IFF, it has won the Grand Prix along with The Best Actor Award. At Montenegro IFF, it has won the Grand Prix - Golden Mimosa Award. HBO Eastern Europe distributed it. Darko co-wrote the SUNDANCE 2016 official entry, A GOOD WIFE, directed by Mirjana Karanović. It was screened at over 40 festivals and has won numerous awards, most notably at Göteborg IFF, Cleveland IFF, Vilnius IFF. Darko directed two seasons of The Suspects, a TV series for Serbian national television RTS in 2016. and 2017. For the last six years, Darko has been producing/directing the feature music documentary and documentary TV series that follows the 50-year-long carrier of legendary Yugoslav / Serbian rock band YU Grupa. He is also co-producing and co-directing Serbian - German documentary THE BEST GOALKEEPER IN THE WORLD. Presently, Darko is developing a feature film, coming of age autobiographical dramedy 1970 supported by Film Center Serbia.
Creator’s statement
I was always interested in the duality between humanism and ideologies. Or how the morally superior ideas, such as nationalistic pride, revolutions, or political causes, affect the lives of the little people they claim to represent. Ostensibly, all those ideas are supposed to make our lives better. A few months ago, while walking down the Boulevard of Revolution, I stopped at the intersection. A simple-looking bronze plaque mounted on the wall caught my eye. It commemorates the event washed out from the collective memory - the assassination of the Turkish Ambassador by Armenian terrorists in 1983. I recalled the forgotten event and that was I reading about it back then, how the bare-handed Belgrade civilians chased the armed assassins of the Ambassador, how the university student Željko was killed during the chase. As a very young man, I imagined the event while reading about it. Immediately, I started researching the assassination and its aftermath. I learned that the controversial, lengthy trial of the terrorists ensued and that a famous Yugoslav lawyer and opposition figure led the Armenians' defense. I learned about the mysterious unnamed policeman who shot one of the terrorists but never testified in court and whom the lawyer blamed for accidentally killing the brave student Željko. All I have learned resonated deeply with me and inspired me to write the complex story about how the random act of violence exposes the cracks in society, but more so, the cracks in human morality, and how it provokes the deepest intimate struggles in all the involved people and force them to examine their beliefs. How the need for revenge collides with a commitment to justice and integrity. At the same time, it is also a story about sacrifice, heroism, and sheer humanity.
Where are we at?
Estimated production budget for the first season: 1,200.000 EUR
Financing in place: 20.000 EUR
Production timeline
Development February 2022 - December 2022
Financing September 2022 - February 2023
Production March-May 2023
Postproduction April - October 2023