Le dernier seigneur des Balkans (2005)

A half century of history in the Balkans is dramatized in this 4 part miniseries of 360 minutes total duration. Episode 1 takes us from the 1890s to 1914. In 1892, the Ottoman Empire is being threatened by patriotic nationalists. In Goricka, the lord of the region celebrates the birth of his heir, Zufikar, receiving the name of the prestigious family's founder. The boy is brought up regally, and graduates from the University of Salonika (at the time Turkish). There he befriends a young Greeek, Takis. Zufikar then returns home, where he again meets Esma, the mill owner's daughter, a childhood acquaintance. Passion erupts between "Z" and Esma. Disagreeing over Esma's sense of virtue, "Z" leaves her without knowing she is carrying his child. Alone and abandoned, Esma marries the coach driver Mustafa, to avoid the disgrace of being a single mother. "Z", in an attempt to forget Esma marries Myriam, a Jewish refugee from Salonika In Episode 2, World War II erupts in the Balkans, then extends all over Europe. In the Balkans however, War continues until the early 20's, when Turkey definitely loses its European territories, and Albania, Yugoslavia and a new larger Greece are all created, including Salonika whose Turkish (Muslim) population is resettled in Turkey proper. Now in Albania (and in Episode 3), "Z", a follower of Zog, the Prime Minister, is elected Deputy of Albania. Esma and Hikmet live near him. "Z" and his son (with Esma) still don't know about their bond. Meanwhile, Suleyman decides to live in Goricka, with Hikmet. Years pass and Zog proclaims himself King of Albania, while young Rasit becomes an active communist. In Goricka, Suleyman marries Pembé, Hikmet's daughter. Then in 1939, Mussolini invades Albania and "Z" is arrested for refusing to collaborate with the Fascist occupation. Rasit again joins other communists and partisans in the underground struggle against the Fascist Italians and Germans. Then in 1940, certain of an easy victory, Italy attacks Greece. This leads us on to Episode 4 which covers 1943 to 1950. In Albania, "Z" and Esma have gone underground. Hikmet is killed, while Suleyman and his young daughter are deported to a German camp. In Goricka, Pembé -persuaded she would never again see her husband and daughter, falls in love with Dimitri, a young partisan with whom she shares a passionate relationship. Escaping from the Germans, "Z" finds refuge with a former mistress. But, for his refusal to her advances, she betrays him revealing the whereabouts of the refugees to the enemy. When "Z" comes back to Bilisté, he finds devastation. Additionally, communists have seized power in Albania and "Z"'s lands and holdings have all been confiscated. He himself is sent away to "Re-education" in a collective farm. Suleyman makes it back to Goricka to discover the fate of his family members. Soviet-supported communism takes hold of all the Balkans, not counting Greece which rid itself of communist threats after a bloody civil war.