THE BOTORIC FAMILY

Svetozar Botoric (1857-1916) was the owner of the Hotel "Paris" in downtown Belgrade. In 1911 he became first producer of films in the Balkans. He produced about 20 documentaries and 2 fiction films. His most famous film is a historical essay about Kara-George, the leader of Serbian upraise against Turks in 1804. Later on, during the communist period, his family was declared "bourgeois" and therefore stayed without their properties and even possibilities to work. His son was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment and his daughter was removed from the post of professor of Music Academy in Belgrade. She escaped to Paris and worked as piano player. In 1995, according hundred years of cinema, she gave an interview to Eric Le Roy from Centre National de la Cinematographie and the author of this film.