Who wanted to assassinate Mihailo Obrenovic, the ruling Prince of Serbia, in 1868?
As the true story plays out in The Duke and The Poet, director Milorad Milinkovic’s glossy tale of royal intrigue, almost everybody inside and outside the country had an ax to grind. While the Radovanovic brothers are marked in history as the trigger men, this dramatic investigation explores their story alongside numerous other incidents and persons of interest surrounding the murder. However, viewers’ mileage for Serbia’s entry for Best International Feature Film for the 2024 Academy Awards may vary depending on how well acquainted they are with the thorny details of the power struggles of 19th century Central Europe.
Before an assassin’s bullet strikes him dead, the conspirators might’ve had an easier time just asking Mihailo (Dragan Micanovic) to step down. Burdened by guilt over ascending to power following the death of his brother, battling for the Bishop’s approval to marry his mistress Katarina (Jana Ivanovic), and more interested in art than politics, Mihailo, as portrayed here, seems to have rather been doing anything else than leading the country. Yet, when his best friend and daguerreotype enthusiast Anastas (Ljubisa Savanovic) foretells his violent end, Mihailo brushes him off, claiming the people are behind him and such a plot is simply inconceivable for the man who liberated the country from the Turks. What already might seem like enough story to wrangle with for one movie is just the introduction in this sprawling drama with epic ambitions.
The script by Milinkovic and Dragoljub Stojkovic is structured and chaptered to unfold over the week leading up to Mihailo’s death. Within this format, the pair reach even further to cover all the angles of the film’s historical context, including Serbia’s political relationship with Austria and Turkey, by adding flashbacks to fill in some of the storytelling gaps. As the various players and machinations start locking into place, one might strangely recall Oliver Stone’s JFK, which also told the story of an assassination refracted through multiple viewpoints and timelines. Unfortunately, even at that film’s feverish pitch, it had a strong, clear-eyed grip on its digressions, something this much more stodgily paced film has difficulty managing. Even as The Duke and The Poet opens with a montage that is effectively a trailer for the climatic killing, there is a discernible lack of tension as the story’s inherent suspense is often dampened by exposition or simply by trying to untangle who is doing what to whom and why.
Thankfully, some memorable performances manage to pull viewers through the narrative thickets. Milos Timotijevic’s turn as the crooked, irascible, and charming Cuburic is easily the film’s highlight. Cuburic is what passes for local law and order, and his dogged pursuit to stop the killing, using his own hands-on methods, drives some of the picture’s best moments. Savanovic’s nervous Anastas is welcome comic relief, as he claims not to be superstitious even if he reads profound significance into the smudges that appear in the portraits he makes. These characters offer a refreshing contrast to Micanovic’s almost too respectful portrayal of Mihailo, whose operating speed is never less than profoundly inoffensive, appearing that neither the actor or director want to shake up the legacy of a beloved figure in Serbia’s history.
It’s this overall air of stateliness, and the film’s rote period piece trappings, that ultimately holds back The Duke and The Poet. Milinkovic often seems at odds between the staid yet handsomely produced drama he’s making and the livelier instincts he tries to keep at bay. But he can’t help himself when the opportunity arises, and those flashier impulses come to the fore in the film’s pivotal assassination sequence. Filmed in highly-stylized slow-motion, it undermines the gravity of the cold-blooded killing the film has been building toward, but allows Milinkovic to exercise the directorial flex it seems he longed to put somewhere in the movie.
Mihailo’s final words, perhaps spoken in French, were “Well, it’s true.” Certainly, The Duke and The Poet represents Milinkovic’s version of Mihailo’s truth. But sometimes, truth needs a little more inspiration and invention to move beyond mere facts and bring it to real, vibrant life.
Director: Milorad Milinkovic
Screenplay: Milorad Milinkovic, Dragoljub Stojkovic
Cast: Dragan Micanovic, Nebojsa Dugalic, Milos Timotijevic, Natasa Ninkovic, Jana Ivanovic, Luka Grbic, Aleksandar Sreckovic „Kubura“, Maja Campar, Tamara Krcunovic
Producers: Vladimir Lucic, Milorad Milinkovic, Aleksandra Martinovic
Cinematography: Dalibor Tonkovic
Production design: Ana Milosevic
Costume design: Dragica Lausevic
Editing: Stevan Maric
Music: Ana Krstajic
Sound: Zoran Maksimovic, Ognjen Popic
Production companies: Telekom Srbija (Serbia), Bombona Film Production (Serbia)
World sales: Soul Food
In Serbian, English
135 minutes
