From the origins of cinema to its contemporary consecration
Macedonian cinema made its appearance long before independence. As early as 1905, the brothers Yanaki and Milton Manaki made what is now recognized as the first film ever shot in the Balkans. Grandma Despina, a sixty-second film featuring the filmmakers' grandmother, then supposedly 114 years old, is now carefully preserved at the Macedonian Cinematheque. The Manaki brothers continued their photography and documentation work for almost fifty years, leaving behind them thousands of meters of film. Considered the fathers of Macedonian cinema, they influenced many directors throughout the first half of the 20th century. Their films, available online free of charge, are an incredible gateway to the region's past. It was also this duo who opened the country's first cinema in Monastir (now Bitola) in 1923.
After the Second World War, cinema in Macedonia developed under Yugoslavian impetus. In 1947, the government agency Film Skopje was founded. In the same year, Vardar Film was founded and began producing films locally. Five years later, Frosina became the first feature film in Macedonian, a poignant drama written by Vlado Malevski, the Macedonian screenwriter and author to whom the country also owes its national anthem. Another noteworthy detail is that this film was one of the first screen appearances of Serbian actress Nadja Regin, who went on to develop an international career in the years that followed. She appeared in Maigret , but also in two episodes of the James Bond saga, Bons baisers de Russie and Goldfinger. During this period, the films produced by the Vardar company gained in quality, as talent was born or flocked in from all over Yugoslavia. Between 1947 and 1991, the studio produced almost seven hundred documentaries and shorts, many of which won international awards. Stole Popov's short film Dae (1979) was nominated for an Oscar, while his feature film Bonne année 49 (1986), about relations between the USSR and post-war Yugoslavia, won the Audience Award at the 1991 São Paulo Film Festival.
After independence, the younger generations who had grown up under the wing of these filmmakers, or had been inspired by them, would continue to build the reputation of Macedonian cinema. In 1994, director Milcho Manchevski made headlines with Before the Rain, a debut film that won over thirty awards worldwide, including the Golden Lion and a prestigious Oscar nomination. The film's three interpolated narratives, which take us from London to fledgling Macedonia, are deeply moving. After this success, Manchevski continued his career in New York, directing a number of independent films. In 2019, he received the Best Director Award at Sundance for Willow, a European co-production that deals beautifully with the challenges still facing today's North Macedonia. In the same year, director Tamara Kotevska also made her mark with her documentary Honeyland, a poignant film recounting the tribulations of a beekeeper faced with unscrupulous industrialists, a production that went on to win three awards at Sundance, before - as yet unheard of - being nominated for an Oscar for both Best Documentary and Best Foreign Film.
For even if North Macedonia currently produces only a few films a year, it can boast a wealth of talent. All the more reason to look to the future of Macedonian cinema with optimism.
Some notable film shoots in Macedonia
Since independence, and despite the fact that it was largely spared the Balkan war, Hollywood and international productions have not been numerous in the country. However, stars George Clooney and Nicole Kidman passed through North Macedonia for one of the scenes in The Peacemaker (1997). You'll recognize the Lukovo bridge most easily in this sequence. It's on the European side that you'll have to turn to see North Macedonia appear on screen. In 2019, Belgian director Delphine Lehericey is shooting Le Milieu de l'horizon, a film set entirely in the countryside around Bitola. Although the interior scenes are filmed in Belgium, it was to find settings bathed in sunshine and heat that the filmmaker travelled to Northern Macedonia in the middle of summer, to create the very special atmosphere of this story. A year later, another Belgian production made a stopover in North Macedonia, this time at Skopje airport. This emblematic place of the country appears in the series Into the Night, a fantastic thriller where the sun suddenly becomes deadly for humans. It follows the passengers of a miraculous flight, saved by the night, who are now desperately trying to avoid the light of the sun. A somewhat convoluted pitch, but a rather gripping series, visible on Netflix. Finally, Northern Macedonia also appears in place of Paris in the Indian blockbuster Mersal (2017). More precisely, it's the National Theatre that features in this grandiloquent film.
Where to see films in North Macedonia?
If you'd like to delve deeper into the history of Macedonian cinema, we invite you to visit Kinoteka, the National Cinematheque. In Skopje, you can also enjoy your films on the Millenium screen or at the Kotur café-bar, which regularly organizes screenings and concerts. For the latest blockbusters in state-of-the-art cinemas, head to Skopje's Cineplexx . Last but not least, the curious cannot miss the Manaki Brothers International Film Festival, held in Bitola every year since 1979, an event that today rewards filmmakers, cinematographers and directors from all horizons. A fine tribute to the fathers of the Macedonian seventh art, and a fine way of perpetuating their love of cinema.
