Vertigo Films and the team in Serbia had 30 filming days at four locations in Serbia: Bojcinska forest, Kalemegdan Fortress, Deliblato and Pancevo Reva.
Sword of Vengeance is an innovative artwork with a great commercial potential. It brought together an international team of authors, and engaged a number of local talents : prominent Serbian set designer Jelena Sopić, costume designer Stefan Savković , make up artist Marinela Spasenović and actor Aleksandar Radojicic which is known to local audiences from the film Montevideo.
International team consists of renowned British actors of the famous TV series , movies and theater: Ed Skrein (Game of Thrones) , Stanley Weber , Dave Lagen (Harry Potter) , Edward Akrout (The Borgias). Director Jim Weedon is known for his visual style, noted in his sequences in the movies Gladiator and Hannibal. His powerful and distinctive style brought him numerous awards, including the BBC Directors Award.
Executive producer in Serbia is Red Production, which has a long tradition of cooperation with foreign productions, and about 70 implemented projects annually. During the month of shooting, this project engaged about 90 people from local companies and 60 local extras and stuntmen, mainly from the Serbian Stunt Association. Red Production started this year in the same style of the medieval spectacle, with Ironclad -Battle of Blood.
Huberta Von Liel, producer from Vertigo Films told us that they were very satisfied with the work they have done in Serbia: “From July this year, when we did location scouting, until the very end of the filming, everything went smoothly as planned. Except for a few leading actors, the director, and the director of photography, all the others , about 150 of them are from Serbia, and they did their job at the highest professional level.”
Edward Akrout, one of the leading actors: “Marinela Spasenović did a scar on my face marvelously, even to me it seemed like a real one! She is just amazing. The entire team is great, I feel like at home, and I hope to come back here soon.” Much to our surprise, at the end of the interview, Ed did a flawless performance of local song, “Little Girl” – in Serbian.
This is just one of many foreign productions that – except for a few key people from abroad – hire the entire team of local professionals – a total of about 200 people at this one. The producers and the actors were delighted by proficiency of Serbian filming professionals, and confirmed that Serbia is one of the most desirable destinations for filming: it has great locations and experienced filmmakers with whom there is a history of successful cooperation, prices are appropriate, and one can freely say that Serbia is a film friendly country.