Shadows over Balkan (), also known as Balkan Shadows, is a Serbian period crime television series created by Dragan Bjelogrlić. In addition to Bjelogrlić, contributors to the screenplay include Danica Pajović, Dejan Stojiljković and Vladimir Kecmanović. The screenplay is based on a story by Stevan Koprivica. The series is a co-production involving Cobra Film, Radio Television of Serbia, Skopje Film Studio, Iskra, Radio Television of the Republic of Srpska, Macedonian Radio Television and The Film Agency of North Macedonia.
The series is set in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes during the Interwar period and follows the story of two Belgrade police department inspectors. The first season is set during the period just before the 6 January Dictatorship and follows attempts by the couple to solve a string of sacrificial murders shaking Belgrade.
Dragan Bjelogrlić, Andrija Kuzmanović, Marija Bergam, Goran Bogdan, Aleksandr Galibin, Nenad Jezdić, Gordan Kičić, Nebojša Dugalić, Branimir Brstina, Srđan Todorović, Dragan Petrović, Nikola Đuričko, Bogdan Diklić, Voja Brajović, Sebastian Cavazza and Toni Mihajlovski are in the lead roles. The first season ran from 22 October 2017 to 24 December 2017 on the RTS1 channel, as well as on many other television channels in the former Yugoslav countries.
The filming of the first season took place between October 2016 and June 2017. The second was filmed during 2018, with all ten episodes airing on 8 November 2019. The first season was received very well by audience and critics alike, some controversy notwithstanding. The production, acting, editing and costume design have all received praise, as have the themes the series deals with.
Premise
The series is divided into three seasons and encompasses the period between 1928 and 1940. The first season covers the period just before the assassination of the Croatian Member of the National Assembly Stjepan Radić at the National Assembly of the Serbs, Croatians and Slovenians and the subsequent establishment of the dictatorship.
The main setting for the series is Belgrade in between the two world wars. Lead characters are fifty-year-old police inspector Andra Tanasijević “Tane“ and his new associate, a young forensic by the name of Stanko Pletikosić. Belgrade is portrayed as a place where crime consists of classic robberies and murders, but whose biggest problems are wars between opium cartels, which use the city as a route for smuggling the drug further into Europe and the United States. The plot of the first season starts with a peculiar and brutal murder occurring at a costume ball at which most of the Belgrade social elite is gathered. Inspector Tanasijević soon discovers that the cause of the eerie events, which multiply by the day, is an ancient relic: namely, the Holy Lance Jesus was pierced with on the cross, which seems to possess mystical power. The Inspector discovers there are people ready to do anything to acquire the Lance, and is sucked into a tangled web of crime involving a range of interest groups: the Russian White army under General Vrangel, the Soviet Union Secret Police (OGPU and NKVD), the Serbian Black Hand movement, IMRO, the Yugoslav communists, elements of the Belgrade underbelly and, not least, a secret society going under the name of Thule. Hot on the crime trail, the Inspector looks for the relic with one aim in mind: to transport it out of Belgrade and thereby prevent further deaths.
The series is set to run over three seasons. The first season consists of ten episodes and is set in the run-up to the 6 January dictatorship. The second season also has ten episodes, and deals with the period before the assassination of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia in Marseilles. The third season is due to be set just before start of World War II in Yugoslavia.