The Belgrade Phantom

12.11.2009

Part documentary and part fiction film about one of the Belgrade urban myths, a phantom who in 1979 drove a stolen white Porsche through the streets of Belgrade, arousing the curiosity of fellow townsmen and being a thorn in the side of the police which was at the time one of the strongholds of the communist regime. 

In view of the fact that in the 1930s the myth was re-created in many film versions, the director Jovan Todorović decided to explore it through interviews with the people who witnessed the legend-in-the-making in person. Accounts from the police, the phantom’s friends and the journalists have been indispensably embedded in the film, in a very special way, its different point of view testifying to the authenticity of the story. Elaborately fashioned fiction inserts were devised as a reconstruction of events and featured sundry comical plots and chase enactments.

Alas, the legend ends tragically. After ten days of tameless exploits through the Belgrade streets, the phantom was finally apprehended and had to serve two-year prison term. After his release he died in a car crash.

                                                                                Barabara Spreiz