Rising Son
Serbian drama Volja sinovljeva (Son’s Will) is set to break boundaries for broadcaster Telekom Srbija. DQ hears from creators Strahinja Madžarević and Nemanja Ćeranić and producer Miloš Avramović about this fantastical, post-apocalyptic adventure series told in the style of an epic folk poem.
A dystopian saga set in a modern, neo-western world and told in the style of epic folk songs, Serbian drama Volja sinovljeva (Son’s Will) blends a number of genres to tell a story of family, survival and love.
The eight-part series centres on Nikola, a gusle player who describes the world of a small community through eight sung poems, telling the story of how the people of this community fought to win their freedom alongside their leader, Jovan.
Partly inspired by the true story of Montenegrin captain Aleksandar Lesko Sajcic, the project began life as a film of the same name and has now been reimagined for broadcaster Telekom Srbija.
The ambitious drama comes from a creative team led by creator and writer Strahinja Madžarević, creator, co-writer and director Nemanja Ćeranić and producer Miloš Avramović.
Telekom Srbija produced the series with Režim, in collaboration with Mir Media, and is also handling international sales.
Here, Madžarević, Ćeranić and Avramović tell DQ more about the series, their partnership and how they hope to inspire a new kind of television storytelling in Serbia.
Introduce us to the story of Son’s Will.
Madžarević: Son’s Will is an epic adventure set in the future after a nuclear catastrophe. A small community of wheat growers live in the desert and refuse to bow to the tyranny of a distant city, which results in destruction of their property. Jovan, one of the survivors, sets off on a long journey in order to find his sister, who was taken by the bandits from the city. During his journey he meets Andjelija, a girl he falls in love with and who helps him find his sister.
How did you pitch the series?
Madžarević: The director and the co-creator of the series, Nemanja Ćeranić, and I started to work on this project a long time ago. In the beginning, it was conceived and developed as a movie. Back in 2017 we had the support of the Film Center of Serbia and we made the first part of the movie, so the project was already familiar to people from the industry. We had interesting material we could show to the producers, and that’s how we got the opportunity to expand the story and develop the series, which we did in 2023.
What themes does the story focus on?
Madžarević: The topics the series explores are family and the preservation of tradition, as well as the basic pillars of life in a world where all these things have been completely forgotten, mocked and have lost every significance. Transferring knowledge and experience from one generation to the next, the fight for freedom, responsibility and bravery are the grounds of our series.
Ćeranić: The most interesting thing was to use the epic poem structure as an inspiration, inserting it into a post-apocalyptic genre in order to obtain a specific, eclectic style of Serbian storytelling and ‘New Hollywood’ aesthetics.
The story is told in the style of epic folk songs. Can you explain more about this and why you took this approach?
Madžarević: Folk poems have shaped not merely Serbian language and culture, but the mentality of an entire nation. The cycle of poems about the Kosovo battle, Marko Kraljevic and hajduks are more important to us than the Bible. Unfortunately, our cinematography hasn’t dealt a lot with epic poetry. Son’s Will was conceived as a cycle of epic poems from the future and we focused on certain poems in different episodes. Today, this approach is the most natural, because we wanted to return to our sources in a different and fresh way and to present them in a different light.
How was the series developed with Telekom Srbija?
Avramović: This genre has been watched in Serbia for decades, but it hasn’t been produced [locally]. The broadcasters and investors stuck to proven formats and didn’t want to experiment with genres. Two things happened that partially changed their perspective: a few successful crime movies and series, which were made only by the persistence and visions of the authors, and the growing availability of streamers. It turned out the audience was ready for a more diverse genre offering and that, due to the old-fashioned and fearful thinking of broadcasters, they were deprived of fresh and new content.
From the beginning, Telekom Srbija was and remains the only broadcaster brave enough to get involved in the production of strictly genre content. As a result, we got excellent series and movies that were not only leaders in the Balkans but, through their quality, they could match similar worldwide content. The Telekom Srbija team keep up with world trends, they have great ambition and they are the only ones who recognised the vision of the author of Son’s Will.
We quickly agreed on the financing of the project and together we dived into this adventure with the idea to write the new pages of Serbian cinematography and television history.
What can you tell us about world of the show, and what rules did you create for it?
Madžarević: Son’s Will is set in an apocalyptic world where the civilisation that we know is destroyed. A nuclear war caused natural catastrophes such as occasional cycles of poisonous rain that completely destroy people and soil. Therefore, people sought refuge in a safe, closed city. The poisonous rains occur once every 10 years and this phenomenon has a religious meaning for some groups, dividing them by their perception of it.
Ćeranić: A famous scientist once said that he didn’t know what weapon would be used to win the Third World War, but every subsequent war would be fought by stick and stone. Our world is halfway between the two. Also, it’s a metaphor that people have returned to some old values and traditions, which you will be able to feel in the series.
Were you inspired by any particular references?
Madžarević: We didn’t have any specific reference, but Nemanja and I are huge fans of genre movies, especially westerns. We are into golden and New Hollywood, we like Japanese and Hong Kong cinematography, so all these influences appear in a way throughout our series.
Ćeranić: As far as the poetics, I’d say old Hollywood western. Samurai movies for aesthetics. As for visual identity, we looked at New Hollywood and directors such as Walter Hill, Brian De Palma and George Miller.
How did you realise the neo-western look of the show?
Madžarević: Nemanja Ceranic and I have been working together for a long time; we’ve been best friends since we were two. Nemanja has always wanted to do a western and he took it upon himself to create the visual identity of the series.
What was the writing process behind the show?
Madžarević: It was very simple. I came up with concepts and episode storylines. Nemanja and I discussed them and he brought his own ideas, which I would use while writing the scripts. We made changes together in subsequent versions of the scripts.
Strahinja, how involved were you through the production?
Madžarević: Because of my relationship with the director and co-creator, I was very involved and I helped in decision making, I have to repeat that we know each other very well, we completely trust one another and we can easily divide work because everyone knows their assignments and where they contribute the most.
What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?
Ćeranić: The biggest challenge was to match different styles of episodes into one whole. Each episode in its specific way opens with new characters and covers different stories and plots, because they are in different locations. Also, it’s set within a dystopian genre that isn’t common here, and the choice of locations was crucial. We also needed to match the scenography with the existing objects in order to build a particular aesthetic. We had to build a completely new apocalyptic world. That’s the biggest challenge, but I think we succeeded.
What are your hopes for the series?
Madžarević: I hope it will find its way to the audience and that this approach will open opportunities for new and different attempts.
Ćeranić: Son’s Will has a modern momentum when it comes to trends in miniseries and I hope it will open a different way of creation and concepts in the near future.
Why might it appeal to international audiences?
Madžarević: This is a universal story in a genre that is very familiar to the international audience, but also brings a Balkan [style], which is very unique and could be very interesting for the audience around the world.
tagged in: Miloš Avramović, Mir Media, Nemanja Ćeranić, Režim, Son’s Will, Strahinja Madžarević, Telekom Srbija, Volja sinovljeva