Logline

The General and the Butterfly is a WWI film based on a true story. A rare butterfly connects a German General and a French Major in the middle of the Balkans, two men from opposing forces, in search for a cure for malaria…

Synopsis

* The film is based on a true story from the First World War.

* The action takes place in 1918, in the shores of Ohrid Lake and mountain Galichica on the territory of nowadays border between Macedonia and Albania, back then frontline between German and French armies.

A German General, military doctor and butterfly specialist, dreams of filling the void in his collection of butterflies. The missing butterfly, according to assumptions, could only live on Mount Galichica in Macedonia. The war is raging, but malaria is deadlier than bullets. He is recruited to a team of doctors to deal with the disease. He is sent to Ohrid, only ten kilometers from the place where his dream butterfly might live. Secretly, the General climbs Galichica. He sees the unique butterfly on the barbed wire that demarks the French-German frontline. He goes after the butterfly that flies over to the French side and catches it, but he is captured too!

 Director’s Statement

I’m always trying to capture the drama of the man in the Balkans, his tormented life in which at times he is a participant, an observer or a voluntary sacrifice.

Why a movie about “The General and the Butterfly”?

The novel “The General and the Butterfly” by academic Luan Starova (MANU, 2020, 750 p.), according to which the homonymous film would be shot, and the script of Venko Andonovski create a solid dramaturgical basis for a successful film work. In search of a subject based on facts, I chose this novel because it is an encyclopedia of humanity, a project of peace, in which the ideas and conceptions characteristic of the time (World War I), are subtly, in an unimposing yet convincing manner, connected to current situations in the world. The universality of the film is its message of peace, conveyed through the friendship between a Frenchman and a German on a World War I front on the territory of Macedonia and Albania.

The film depicts a real event from 1918. The story rests on a metaphor shown through the character of the German scientist Fritz Dagmar, who stays in Macedonia in search of а cure for malaria and а rare specimen of the queen butterfly that can only be found on Mount Galichica in Macedonia.

The dramaturgy will develop through a gradation of the conflict between the characters, from enmity, mistrust, and disrespect to trust and friendship in the name of a universal good.

Antonio Mitrikeski – Director

Vladimir Stojcevski – Producer

Short Bio of the director

Antonio Mitrikeski is born in Skopje in 1961. He graduated from the State School of Theatre, Film and Television in Lodz, Poland in 1987, at the department of film directing.

He is the author of two television dramas IS SOMEONE THERE and THE CHEAT AND THE INNKEEPER. THE LOVE OF KOCO TOPENCAROV was his debut film in 1991. In 1997, he directed the long length movie ACROSS THE LAKE in Macedonian-Polish production, followed by the feature LIKE A BAD DREAM in 2003, and seven documentaries between 2011 and 2012. In 2014, he co-wrote, directed and produced the feature CHILDREN OF THE SUN, premiere in Raindance Film Festival. He then served as head of VARDAR Film and founded the film production and distribution company, “Horizon Film”. He is Professor at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Skopje and works as a visiting professor at other universities.