Stories from the museum documentary series

Nine exclusive half-hour episodes inspired by objects from the collection of the National Museum in Kragujevac. The camera takes us to the places where the objects were found and with the key statements of the curator we learn the wider context. A series common on the world's TV stations - but a series that has never been seen in Serbia.

Episode 1: PREHISTORY
Lepenski vir - the place where was made the first sculpture in World History, where the first religion was born, where the first domestication of animals and cultivation of plants took place. Vincha - the place where the first town in Europe was established. The Vincha settlements in the vicinity of Kragujevac, the Divostin Venus and other preserved objects. Were the people of Vinča in fact Serbs?

Episode 2: THE MIDDLE AGES
The first Serbian states and their expansion on the territory of Shumadiya. The only Donjon tower preserved in Shumadiya. Life of the "ordinary people" during the Middle Ages in Serbia. What was produced in the settlements below mount Rudnik? Monument to the despot Stefan from 1427. The Serbian despotate in Syrmia - the last Serbian medieval state. Exclusive map of the Despotate of Syrmia.

Episode 3: KARADJORDJE
The camera follows key places linked to Karadjordje and the First Serbian Uprising. Original items from the Voljavcha Monastery and the room in which Karadjordje used to sleep are shown. The connection between medieval Serbia and Serbia under Karadjordje. What does Karadjordje's rifle - with which he never missed a shot - look like today?

Episode 4: PRINCE MILOS OBRENOVIC
Where is stored the cross in front of which the insurgents took the oath in Takovo, on Candlemas Day 1815? Where are the remains of the Takovo oak under which the Second Serbian Uprising started? How did the complex of Milos’s castle in Kragujevac look like? The oldest lock and the oldest key in Kragujevac - they still function today as they did in 1918.

Episode 5: PRINCE MICHAEL
The story of one of the most popular rulers in the history of Serbia. Where did he build the first Serbian assembly building? How did he want to implement Ilija Garašanin's "Nachertania"? Why was Prince Mihailo killed?

Episode 6: CITIZENS IN THE 19TH CENTURY
How did the civil class raise itself in Serbia? Which was the first urbanized street? Original items from a civilian house, traditions, way of life... When was mandatory and free primary education imposed in Serbia?

EPISODE 7: PRINCE ALEKESANDER KARADJORDJEVIC
Prince Aleksander, the son of the uprising leader Karadjordje, is the most neglected ruler of recent Serbian history in historiography, in art, and globally in Serbian society. Only one monument in Serbia was erected in his honor (in Gornji Milanovac, city which he had founded), no books or newspaper serials have been written about him, neither are there documentaries or movies. Why that, and didn’t he deserve better?

EPISODE 8: THE FIRST FACTORY IN THE BALKANS
It was founded in Kragujevac in 1853 as a smelter of cannons. Soon after, it received several production lines of civilian program. The first civilian products made by the Serbian industry were nails. Then, church’s and school’s bells, steam irons, plows, mail carriages were also produced here... The factory won awards at fairs and contributed to the development of Serbia, and to the reduction of its dependency on imports.

EPISODE 9: THE SHUMADIYA DIVISION
The war path of the largest military unit and the longest that existed on the territory of central Serbia. The story of the division is the opportunity to show the oldest video footage of Kragujevac, which are stored in the Yugoslavian Cinematheque. These are recordings of the unveiling of the Monument to the fallen Shumadians and of the Monument to King Alexander which was cast from cannons from previous wars (but demolished in 1944/45). In this episode, film footage of old Kragujevac (in 1920 and 1930) is shown for the first time.