Balkan Cinema, a cultural monument composed of three sections between today’s Makedonska, Braće Jugovića, and Despota Stefana streets, began its history between 1867 and 1870. Although the exact year of its establishment is unknown, Đurić Zamolo notes that this building was not on the list of taverns in 1860, but by 1875, the Serbian newspapers mention it as a significant city landmark. Built on the foundations of an older structure, possibly a Turkish inn (han), the current Balkan Cinema initially existed as a tavern called Bulevar. Through a gradual change in function (from a tavern to a high-class hotel that hosted numerous performing ensembles, including the Belgrade Opera of Žarko Savić, after which it was renamed in 1909, and eventually became exclusively a cinema) and a change in name (from Bulevar, through Opera, to Balkan), it was renamed in 1928 to its current name: Balkan.
The architect of this representative academic building remains unknown. The Bulevar tavern was initially constructed by Đorđe Pašona, a producer of alcoholic beverages, who, due to financial difficulties, borrowed money from Vanđel Toma, a successful tobacco merchant. When Pašona could not repay the debt, he eventually sold the entire property to Toma, who later bequeathed it to the Serbian Merchants’ Association for the education of young traders from southern Serbia. There were mixed opinions in the daily press about this, with some praising Toma’s generosity, while others mistakenly perceived the building’s end with his death, stating: “Thus, Bulevar has died.” Despite these assumptions, the building continued to operate throughout the 20th century and, after brief interruptions in the 21st century, underwent a reconstruction project starting in 2017, expanding its initial function as a cinema to also hosting musical concerts, festivals, exhibitions, fashion shows, performances, conferences, and roundtables.
However, the history of film screenings at Balkan Cinema dates back long before its renaming. Just four years after the first film screening in the world, in February 1899, the first film was shown at the Bulevar tavern. During that month, a cinematograph was hosted at Bulevar, and in July and August, F. Benicky’s American cinema from Nuremberg gave performances there. By the following year, a film about the wedding of the royal couple, Aleksandar Obrenović and Draga Mašin, was screened (three years before conspirators set out from this very building to assassinate the royal couple). The early days of cinema in Serbia were marked by traveling cinemas that rented space from hotels and taverns, so the succession of traveling cinemas at Bulevar was not unusual.
The increasing interest in this new invention, a growing audience, and the increasing profitability of the business prompted exhibitors to actively advertise their work, which led to the first conflicts of interest among cinemas in the capital. Newspapers often carried accusations of space poaching between cinemas. For example, Pavle Tica, the owner of a cinema previously installed at Bulevar, was accused by competitors of simply moving his equipment to a new location, the Hajduk Veljko tavern. The competitiveness of today’s Balkan in the field of film screening is illustrated by an advertisement from Biograf Theatre Ben Akiba in 1908, which listed it as “the best cinematographic theater to date, greatly loved by the Belgrade audience.”
After several decades of operating under the name Bulevar, the building was renamed Opera in 1909. Director Žarko Savić leased Bulevar for five years to open the Belgrade Opera in its premises (operating between 1909 and 1911) and remodeled the space, adding boxes, galleries, and permanent seating. During this period, the sound film Chronomegaphone Gaumont was projected in the tavern hall in 1910. The Belgrade press enthusiastically reported on this innovation, recommending readers visit the Opera and witness this technical marvel for themselves: “Chronomegaphone is a cinematograph whose images sing, speak, and play. The performances are very interesting. The images come from the famous Gaumont cinematograph institute and are shown very beautifully.” Interestingly, in this period, as in many other cinemas across the country, female music ensembles regularly performed, with their musical numbers announced alongside the scheduled film repertoire.
After several years in which films were shown by traveling cinemas at Bulevar (later Opera), on December 15, 1912, a permanent cinema was finally opened under the name Grand Cinema by the Gaumont family in the Opera hotel. In pre-war Belgrade, the two most powerful French film companies, Pathé and Gaumont, competed for dominance in the market. It can be inferred that even Opera Hotel, as one of the city’s most important cinematic venues, was not exempt from this rivalry. However, after a month, the film exhibition was taken over by the Cvetković brothers, owners of the Kolarac tavern, and Gaumont’s name was dropped from the cinema title.
Before World War I, wealthier cinema owners began producing the first domestic films and recording footage from the Balkan Wars. The cinema at Opera Hotel actively participated in this until the outbreak of the war and the subsequent Austro-Hungarian occupation (1915–1918), which saw the closure of nearly all cinemas in the capital. In this climate, most cinemas across the country closed, and cinema equipment was sold off through advertisements.
However, after 1918, as the film exhibition business gradually re-emerged, the idea of a national film distribution network began to take shape. Opera returned to the scene, and a decade later, in 1928, it changed ownership and was renamed Balkan Cinema. The technical modernization of the cinema was highlighted daily in the press. In the 1930s, Balkan was advertised as the cinema with the “most beautiful Christmas program,” “the Christmas program for children,” “the renovated cinema with the most perfect sound equipment,” and later, as the cinema showing “only the best films, always double programs, with the most perfect equipment, the most efficient ventilation, and the lowest prices in Belgrade.” These were standard marketing strategies of the time: in addition to introducing sound films and double features, cinemas improved seating conditions and often organized performances by entertainers (jugglers, musicians, magicians) during intermissions. Regarding the content, due to the overwhelming presence of foreign films, the 1931 Law on the Regulation of Film Traffic required Balkan, like other cinemas, to screen at least 15% domestic films.
During the interwar period, the building underwent some architectural changes. In 1925, upon the request of Dragutin M. Denić, who had leased the hotel since 1909, alterations were made to the ground floor. In 1930, modifications were made to the Zora Tavern, and in 1932, the Serbian Merchants’ Association requested the leveling of the terrain and proposed architectural changes, including the renovation of external and internal walls and windows, excavation of the floor to create a new restaurant space in the basement, construction of a mezzanine reinforced concrete structure, and replacement of the wooden gallery with a concrete one. That same year, the cinema was leased by Draga Lazić and Anton Cinfla, who held it until 1947 when the forced administration was taken over by the Film Association.
After World War II, which had destabilized the cinema industry during the interwar period, cinema operations were re-established, and in 1946, city enterprises for film exhibition were founded. The Belgrade company, renamed the Beograd Film Company in 1954, owned Balkan Cinema, among others. The resolution of status and organizational issues, as well as the renovation of existing cinemas and the opening of new ones, occurred during the nationwide wave of cinema expansion. In 1948, modifications were made to the Balkan cinema hall, and the post-war repertoire mainly featured pre-war Western films, Soviet war films, and domestic footage on current topics such as liberation struggles and labor actions. The newly established Filmske novosti section regularly supplied cinemas with newsreels, which were often shown at Balkan as part of the accompanying program.
Filmmaker Slobodan Šijan humorously recalled the appearance and status of this cinema in the 1950s in his story “War of the Worlds,” reminiscing about his childhood days:
“At that time, ‘Balkan’ was not for ‘refined’ audiences—it was still heated by a large cast-iron stove, with the chimney running up past the balcony to a hole in the ceiling. The balcony was supported by rough-hewn wooden pillars. It was an old cinema where silent films used to be shown long ago—so I was later told by Uncle Majc, the eternal ticket-taker at the Film Museum in Kosovska. He was tearing tickets at Balkan even before the Second World War. He would tell us how, back then, one could buy a cheaper standing-room ticket, which would secure a spot behind the screen. Since a large part of the audience was illiterate at that time, the cinema owner would loudly read the intertitles, and the reversed text wouldn’t bother those behind the screen. For better visibility, the screen would often be sprayed with water. That was Majc’s job. Before the screening, he would take a garden hose and spray the screen from both sides with the finest mist he could produce, being careful not to tear the screen with the water pressure.”
In the following decades, reports of the lack of cinema spaces in Belgrade led to the announcement of 2,000 new cinema seats in city theaters in early 1959, while a 1960 article in the magazine Mladost humorously pointed out the need to renovate existing cinemas. Titled “Danger Lurks in the
Dark,” the article warned that the hall and balcony of Balkan, with a total of 311 wooden seats, were heated by ordinary stoves, fire extinguishers were mounted too high, and the exit led through a dark and narrow courtyard with steep steps.
In the next decade, Balkan underwent some architectural changes. Politika in 1975 reported on the renovation of the building and the painting of its facade in green, along with the installation of a plaque with information about the activities of the Serbian Social Democratic Party (which had held congresses in the building in 1903, 1904, 1907, 1908, and 1910). A 1978 edition of the same newspaper spoke of the remodeling of cinema halls across the city, with the adaptation of Balkan scheduled for that period as well. The 1960s and 1970s were marked by the advent of television and the rapid increase in the number of TV sets in the country, which somewhat affected cinema attendance. However, it was the opening of video clubs (the first video clubs in Belgrade opened in 1982) that drastically impacted the cinema industry. Despite this, annual statistics for Balkan Cinema show a much higher number of viewers in the 1980s compared to the previous decade, although it should be noted that in 1980, the number of seats was reduced from 473 to 388, and the number of films shown increased from an average of 25% to nearly 50%. Throughout this time, the cinema was active throughout the week—with three screenings daily on weekdays and weekends. In 1988, the number of screenings was increased to five daily, only to be reduced back to three in 1993/4. This decade was also marked by the adaptation of the cinema, and in 1984, the Balkan building was declared a cultural monument. The decision covered all three buildings from Vanđel Toma’s estate: the Balkan Cinema building, the central building with the hall, and the building on the corner of today’s Makedonska and Braće Jugovića streets, which housed the Zora Tavern.
In the following decade, the national cinema industry was severely affected by war, inflation, the breakup of the country, and the consequent fragmentation of the film industry, although the most far-reaching changes in cinema exhibition stemmed from the growing piracy industry. Balkan Cinema, one of the city’s oldest cinemas, was under pressure, with reports in the press claiming that its hall no longer met the tastes and demands of the modern audience. In the 1993 issue of the newspaper Borba, cinemas like Balkan, Kozara, and Jadran were contrasted with the new type of cinema (specifically, Cinema M, the first in a chain of alternative cinema networks that the distribution company M Export-Import intended to create), which had fewer seats, restaurants adjacent to the halls, and snacks served at the seats. Beograd Film’s response was an attempt to rebrand and revive some of its cinemas, including Balkan, mainly through the creation of higher-quality and more relevant seasonal programs. In addition, planned collaborations with the Yugoslav Film Archive hinted at changes in the cinema’s programming policy, with the idea of screening old films from the archive regularly at Balkan. Despite constant challenges, Balkan was ranked eighth in terms of audience attendance at the end of the century, with 128,351 viewers, surpassing only Dom Sindikata, Kozara, Sava Centar, Jadran, and Zvezda in Belgrade, and Arena and Jadran in Novi Sad.
The period of inactivity between 2004 and 2008 was interrupted by the project A New Old Place in the City, organized in collaboration with Intermedia Network and the production company Magic Line. After four years of inactivity, Balkan reopened in 2008 with the film The Danube Waves by Darko Bajić. With the opening of a DVD store and the production of five-minute informational TV shows Novi Balkan Bisko, the cinema entered into communication with television formats, intending to modernize its approach and complement its film exhibition activities. The cinema’s programming policy also changed: alongside domestic and regional films, independent auteur films from all over the world were included, as well as works rarely found on the commercial cinema circuit, such as student films, documentaries, and short films. In the accompanying project Boulevard of Stars, four stars were installed outside the cinema in honor of significant figures in Serbian cinema: actor Bata Stojković and directors Žika Pavlović, Krsta Škanata, and Saša Petrović. In 2010, the cinema was closed again, and in 2016, Politika reported on the start of the building’s renovation (the roof repairs and the construction of the underground part of the building began in 2010) and the reshaping of the facade (which took place in 2014 and 2015).
In 2017, the Saša Marčeta Foundation launched the Balkan Cinema reconstruction project, aiming to restore the building’s primary function and adapt it to contemporary requirements. Today, Balkan Cinema is a multifunctional space that hosts film screenings (Lihvar, The Homeless Dandy) and other cultural events such as exhibitions, festivals, music concerts, theater performances, fashion shows, conferences, and roundtables. Collaborations with film festivals, including the Beldocs Documentary Film Festival (Balkan has hosted Beldocs’ VR exhibition several times), reflect the cinema’s commitment to preserving the comprehensive cinema experience.
List of References:
Balkan Cinema: A New Old Place in the City, Intermedia Network, Magic Line, Belgrade 2009.
B. Subašić, B. Opačić, J. Damnjanović, Cinemas in Serbia, Institute for the Study of Cultural Development, Belgrade 2013.
D. Đurić Zamolo, Hotels and Taverns of the 19th Century in Belgrade, Museum of the City of Belgrade, Belgrade 1988.
D. Kosanović, Cinematography and Film in the Kingdom of SHS/Kingdom of Yugoslavia: 1918–1941, Film Center of Serbia, Belgrade 2011.
D. Kosanović, The Beginnings of Cinematography on the Territory of Yugoslavia: 1896–1918, Institute for Film, University of Arts, Belgrade 1985.
Cinematography in Serbia 1969–2000, Institute for Film, Belgrade 1971–2004.
R. Zelenović, V. Gavrik, V. Lašić, V. Kostić, A Century of Film: 1895–1995, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Yugoslav Film Archive, Belgrade 1995.
S. Šijan, Writers in the Cinema: A Literary History of Our Cinematic Experiences, Film Center of Serbia 2020.
Online Sources:
Saša Marčeta Foundation, https://warped-development.com/desavanja/
Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of the City of Belgrade: Balkan Cinema, https://beogradskonasledje.rs/kd/zavod/stari_grad/bioskop_balkan.html
A section of the building facing Makedonska Street was built first, followed by the hall—most likely on the site of the former large garden—and the building facing today’s Bulevar Despota Stefana was later added. See: D. Đurić Zamolo, Hotels and Taverns of the 19th Century in Belgrade, Museum of the City of Belgrade, Belgrade 1988, 19, 22.
See at: https://beogradskonasledje.rs/kd/zavod/stari_grad/bioskop_balkan.html
D. Đurić Zamolo, Hotels and Taverns of the 19th Century in Belgrade, Museum of the City of Belgrade, Belgrade 1988, 17
Ibid
Đurić Zamolo notes that the hotel was initially advertised as a first-class hotel, but later, as the building aged, it was downgraded to a second-class hotel. See in: D. Đurić Zamolo, Hotels and Taverns of the 19th Century in Belgrade, Museum of the City of Belgrade, Belgrade 1988, 18.
Divna Đurić-Zamolo, in her book Hotels and Taverns of the 19th Century in Belgrade, questions this assumption.
D. Đurić Zamolo, Hotels and Taverns of the 19th Century in Belgrade, Museum of the City of Belgrade, Belgrade 1988, 18.
Beogradske Opštinske Novine, Belgrade, October 1, 1939.
Pravda, Belgrade, July 12, 1906.
In addition, in the same year, the first Serbian vaudeville humorist-satirical theater Orfeum by Brana Cvetković was opened in the Bulevar hall, and foreign artistic and entertainment troupes actively performed there. (From the documentation of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of the City of Belgrade)
D. Kosanović, The Beginnings of Cinematography on the Territory of Yugoslavia: 1896–1918, Institute for Film, University of Arts, Belgrade 1985, 46.
D. Đurić Zamolo, Hotels and Taverns of the 19th Century in Belgrade, Museum of the City of Belgrade, Belgrade 1988, 20.
D. Kosanović, The Beginnings of Cinematography on the Territory of Yugoslavia: 1896–1918, Institute for Film, University of Arts, Belgrade 1985, 52.
Pravda, Belgrade, January 13, 1909.
Đurić Zamolo notes that the interior decoration of the hall from the time of adaptation for the opera included 19 mirrors, chandeliers, and lamps. See in: D. Đurić Zamolo, Hotels and Taverns of the 19th Century in Belgrade, Museum of the City of Belgrade, Belgrade 1988, 22.
Nedelja, Belgrade, September 16, 1909.
From the documentation of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of the City of Belgrade.
Mali Žurnal, Belgrade, May 5, 1910.
D. Kosanović, The Beginnings of Cinematography on the Territory of Yugoslavia: 1896–1918, Institute for Film, University of Arts, Belgrade 1985, 58.
From the documentation of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of the City of Belgrade.
M. Paramentić, Let’s Go to the Cinema, in: R. Zelenović, V. Gavrik, V. Lašić, V. Kostić, A Century of Film: 1895–1995, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Yugoslav Film Archive, Belgrade 1995, 279.
D. Kosanović, The Beginnings of Cinematography on the Territory of Yugoslavia: 1896–1918, Institute for Film, University of Arts, Belgrade 1985, 117.
D. Đurić Zamolo, Hotels and Taverns of the 19th Century in Belgrade, Museum of the City of Belgrade, Belgrade 1988, 20.
Vreme, Belgrade, January 9, 1929.
Ibid
Vreme, Belgrade, February 6, 1933.
Vreme, Belgrade, January 15, 1940.
D. Kosanović, Cinematography and Film in the Kingdom of SHS/Kingdom of Yugoslavia: 1918–1941, Film Center of Serbia, Belgrade 2011, 48.
B. Subašić, B. Opačić, J. Damnjanović, Cinemas in Serbia, Institute for the Study of Cultural Development, Belgrade 2013, 6.
From the documentation of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of the City of Belgrade.
Ibid
M. Paramentić, Let’s Go to the Cinema, in: R. Zelenović, V. Gavrik, V. Lašić, V. Kostić, A Century of Film: 1895–1995, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Yugoslav Film Archive, Belgrade 1995, 285.
Ibid
From the documentation of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of the City of Belgrade.
M. Paramentić, Let’s Go to the Cinema, in: R. Zelenović, V. Gavrik, V. Lašić, V. Kostić, A Century of Film: 1895–1995, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Yugoslav Film Archive, Belgrade 1995, 286.
Borba, Belgrade, September 13, 1954.
S. Šijan, War of the Worlds, in: S. Šijan, Writers in the Cinema: A Literary History of Our Cinematic Experiences, Film Center of Serbia 2020, 402.
Borba, February 2, 1959.
Mladost, December 7, 1960.
Politika, September 29, 1975.
Politika, November 8, 1978.
M. Paramentić, Let’s Go to the Cinema, in: R. Zelenović, V. Gavrik, V. Lašić, V. Kostić, A Century of Film: 1895–1995, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Yugoslav Film Archive, Belgrade 1995, 293.
Statistics derived from: Cinematography in Serbia 1969–1995, Institute for Film, Belgrade 1971–2001.
Ibid
D. Đurić Zamolo, Hotels and Taverns of the 19th Century in Belgrade, Museum of the City of Belgrade, Belgrade 1988, 21.
From the documentation of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of the City of Belgrade.
Borba, Belgrade, May 11, 1993.
Borba, Belgrade, June 10, 1994.
Borba, Belgrade, July 20, 1992.
Cinematography in Serbia 1996–2000, Institute for Film, Belgrade 2004, 204.
**Balkan Cinema: A New Old
Place in the City**, Intermedia Network, Magic Line, Belgrade 2009.
Ibid
Politika, December 8, 2016.
See at: https://warped-development.com/desavanja/projekcija-filma-lihvar/
See at: https://warped-development.com/desavanja/projekcija-filma-beskucnik-dendi/
See at: https://warped-development.com/desavanja/beldocs-imerzivna-stvarnost