Director Đorđe Kadijević, author of the 1973 television film "Leptirica" which is considered the first and scariest horror film made in former Yugoslavia, has died at the age of 94, Index.hr reports, citing Slobodna Dalmacija.
Kadijević was born on 6 January 1933 in Šibenik, in the same street as Arsen Dedić. A trained art historian and visual critic, he made his feature film debut in 1967 with the war drama "Praznik" starring Velimir Bata Živojinović. Following the war titles "Pohod" and "Žarko", it was "Leptirica" that established him as a pioneer of horror in the region.
In that film, he combined vampire and folkloric motifs, turning a rural idyll into a space of fear: the girl played by Mirjana Nikolić becomes a vampire. The film is compared with the British classic "The Wicker Man", released the same year.
Later in the genre, he directed "Djevičanska svirka", "Zakletva" and "Sveto mjesto", which some audiences consider his best work. He also signed off on the dramas "Čovjek koji je pojeo vuka" and "Karađorđeva smrt", both with Aleksandar Berček, and his series "Vuk Karadžić" won the Grand Prix for best European series in Rome and was included on the UNESCO list of cultural heritage.
A sequel to "Leptirica" under the working title "Kletva" was never realised. However, a remake is in preparation, directed by Karla Lulić, with Dea Marija Računica in the lead role. Lulić previously stated to Slobodna Dalmacija that she had received Kadijević's blessing for the project and that she and the director "recognised a similar sensibility towards the genre".
