Le dernier seigneur des Balkans

This four part miniseries is as outstanding as cinema, as it is and entertaining and important history lesson. It is very timely too, as the situation is the Balkans still remains one of the world's hot-spots for another war.

The French series (though it includes Greek and Spanish actors, among others) is dubbed into French. At least as it is playing worldwide during the month of March 2006, most recently, on the world French Language Network, TV5. The series is an adaptation of a novel, very cleverly set in a lake region, in the former European part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. The region is, by the middle of the Episode 2, divided into 3 parts, as it still is today, though these parts have gone back and forth between countries in the last 100 years.

So by choosing this Balkan location, the recent history of Albania, Macedonia/Yugoslavia, Greece (the 3 Balkan countries of this series) plus Turkey, and to some degree Bulgaria, can be told in the classic soap "opera-ish" epic. The characters are for the most part fictitious, but all represent the peoples inhabiting the Balkans: the Muslim Turks, the Christian Macedonians/Yugoslavs, the Yugoslav Muslims, the Greek Jews, the pro-Russian Bulgarians, and Albanians of all types.

It is easy to see in these characters that there is NO clear-cut ethnicity, as there was no real border for hundreds of years. What defined people somewhat were their social class, and their languages, but language is not addressed in the series, spoken and dubbed in French, but assuming the region is bi-lingual: Slavic Macedonian (similar to Serbian) and Greek, with Turkish influences on both languages.

It is also interesting to note in the series, that none of the different characters were religious. A Muslim would marry a Jew, a Jew a Christian, a Christian a Muslim, and so on, without any fuss. The series shows that the real determining factors of an "ethnic group" was neither language nor religion, but rather each character's political orientation. That attached them to the 3 countries formed from this lake region with multiple borders within miles of each other.

Thus, hard line communists ended up fighting for Albania, Tito-following partisans for Yugoslavia (Macedonia and Serbia), capitalists (including some communists defeated in their civil war) for Greece, and Turks moved to the new Turkey in the 1920s.

All these countries went on to live in relative peace with each other by the end of this miniseries (1949/50). And that peace continued for another 40 something years, until the death of Tito and the fall of Communism brought back "Balkanization" and tribal warfare.

A valuable and excellent history lesson in an a most entertaining format. Highly Recommendable!

I happened to read an article from 2006 claiming that the series made a botch of Cumali's book (on which is based), by abandoning its original plot and distorting some of its heroes beyond recognition. Although I haven't read the book myself, I don't' believe that taking some liberties with it is the main reason why this series fails to impress.

This show severely lacks tension. This is a serious problem for a series that is supposed to describe the conflicts that plagued the Balkan Peninsula during the first half of the 20th century. I, for one, see it as a very sloppy approach to the Balkan world and its ambiguities. Most scenes seem contrived and the dialogue is stilted at best. The actors are more preoccupied with seeming real rather than acting real. This is particularly the case with the show's protagonist. From his first to his last scene he seems incapable of making us believe that he's actually going through whatever his character is going through. The same goes for the supporting characters too, many of which come across as wooden and static. The dubbing makes matters worse, as it utterly destroys whatever shred of originality and surprise could be found in the dialogue.

In addition, the series could have been far better visually. I am not an expert on cinematography, but my humble opinion is that the directors could have done considerably better, as far as sets, lighting, costumes and colours are concerned. Unfortunately, the shots and the images produced here don't add any depth to the story. Instead they make it look even phonier. There are scenes that look like cheap documentary re-enactments (and not particularly accurate) or, even worse, fancy dress parties.

Moreover, the series doesn't really excel in combating Balkan stereotypes, despite its promise for objectivity. On the contrary, it fully accepts and reproduces them with an air of western european snobism.

The music and the beautiful landscape help sugarcoat the pill a little, but, for its most part, the series cannot even remotely involve us emotionally in the dramatic action. This is really a pity, because it could have been a very interesting mini-series, if the subject had been treated with the attention and respect it deserves.

This series was good. It showed the complexity of the Balkan region. Also showed how bad communism was. Hoxha was a brute. The casting was good too. I also liked how the world changed during the decades. A shame that not many people commented on this TV movie.

A sequel to this movie can be played in our heads. Communism is the loser for sure. Nationalism will win. I would assume that the baby will be brought up by the Greek chap who would become a rich magnate. He would adopt his values which is better than that of his birth mother's (communism) and birth father's (nationalism). The Greek man's ideology is every man for himself.