Nov 29, 2023 | Balkan Royals - The royal families are back in the Balkans. Once ousted by the communists, they now enjoy a high reputation again. Externally, they act as representatives of their states; internally, as moral and neutral institutions.
Balkan Royals (2018)
Director: Alix François Meier
Genre: Documentary
Country: Germany Language: English
Synopsis:
After the fall of the iron curtain, the aristocrats experience an impressive comeback in some of the post-communist states. The documentation portrays three examples of old royal dynasties that became important and powerful in the post-communism and brings its history back to life.
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The film introduces Bulgaria’s Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Montenegro’s heir apparent, Nicholas, Crown Prince of Montenegro as well as the already deceased Michael I of Romania and his daughter Crown Princess Margareta as representatives for the present and past of three east-European dynasties.
The aristocracy was ostracized in the communist countries of eastern Europe and central Europe. In times of focusing on the own national identity, the Royals became in different ways more and more important. On the one hand, the royal houses are an essential part of the country’s history and were responsible for a lot of historiography in the regions they ruled and help today’s countries to have something to identify with. On the other hand, their representatives stand stability the countries had long waited for.
Other titles for this film are as follows:
In Germany: Die Royals vom Balkan
In France : Balkans : le retour des familles royales
At the end of the 1800s, the Danish King, Christian IX and his wife, Queen Louise, married their six children into the dominating European royal families and Christian IX became known as "Europe's Father-In-Law". Today, his descendants are to be found all over Europe.
These are their stories, stories of power, love, triumph, tragedy and honour, recounted through interviews and never before published letters, photographs and home movie footage, by over 30 members of the European royal family.
Anecdotes handed down through generations give insight into a Europe ruled by 'dynasty politics' where arranged marriages created alliances between countries.
In the Europe of the 1800s, Denmark, England, and Russia each have a childless king; all three need an heir to the throne. Speedily arranged marriages, births, and cunning strategies bring King Christian IX, Queen Victoria and Tsar Alexander II to the throne.
The roles played by cousins Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and King George V of England in the desperate, frantic summer of 1914.
How the tangled relationships and emerging rivalries between Europe's royal houses at the outbreak of the First World War played a crucial role in the conflict.
