The newest upcoming project that Antonio Mitrikeski is working on is a full-length feature film for “THE GENERAL AND THE BUTTERFLY” with the motto: “Butterfly is a symbol of resurrection”…
The theme of my three full-length feature films, as in all my documentaries, was the drama that people in this Balkan region go through, in different eras and in different circumstances.
I was trying to capture the drama of the man in this Balkan area, his divisiveness and polarization, and his life that takes place in front of his eyes and in which he is at times a participant, observer, or just a victim.
Film critics of my films so far say that I can present this psychological and emotional drama of the man from those territories with a simple film language that reveals emotions and tells the fate of people, with the help of visual scenes, artistic shots frames, with the knowledge of film language, through the composition of the frame, movement of the camera and the editing.
Why a movie with the theme “The General and the Butterfly”?
With the published novel by the writer Acad. Luan Starova “The General and the Butterfly” (published by MANU (Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts), 2020, 750 pages), which the film of the same name would be shot, by the script of Luan Starova, is created a solid dramaturgical basis to realize a successful film. In search of a true theme based on facts, I chose this novel because it is an encyclopedia of humanity, a project of peace, in which the ideas and concepts characteristic of that time (World War I) discreetly and unobtrusively, but sovereignly and convincingly, build upon contemporary knowledge and current world conditions. The universality of the film is a message of peace, through the first friendship between France and Germany in the First World War that takes place on the territory of the Republic of North Macedonia and the Republic of Albania.
The film refers to a true story from 1918, on the territory of R.N. Macedonia, about finding a vaccine against malaria, a problem that is still relevant today because it encompasses the global situation in the world with the pandemic of viruses. The film conveys a message that the priority of humanity should be preservation of nature, care for animals and plants, and shows that with global solidarity in order to defeat viruses, such as solidarity and reconciliation of opposing forces in the early 20th century, all the challenges that our civilization faces today can be overcome.
The story is based on a metaphor shown through the character of the German scientist Fritz Dagmar, who was staying in Macedonia in search of a cure for malaria, and the rare specimen of the queen butterfly that can be found only on the mountain Galicica in R.N. Macedonia. The dramaturgy will develop through the conflict between the characters, from enmity, mistrust, and disrespect to trust and friendship in the name of universal good.