Smrt Omera i Merime – skica za kino-dramatizaciju narodne pesme

Ljubomir Dušanov Jurković (1898, Benkovac – 1982, Ljubljana), a Croatian and Yugoslav publicist, writer, translator and political activist, published this rare booklet in Ljubljana in 1928. The work is a sketch for a film adaptation (a film script in the form of a libretto) of the famous South Slavic folk ballad The Death of Omer and Merime, which belongs to the cycle of epic poems about unhappy love and blood feud.

The booklet was printed in a small edition and published by the author himself. It is a numbered copy, which makes it even more sought after among collectors. Jurković attempted to convey the epic-lyrical power of the folk song to the film medium, which at that time was still a new and exciting form of art. The text is structured as a film sketch — with scene descriptions, dialogues, and visual cues, thus representing an early example of an attempt to film oral literary tradition in the South Slavic region.

The ballad The Death of Omer and Merime is one of the most famous Muslim folk songs (sevdalinka in epic form), and Jurković has treated it with respect for the folklore tradition, emphasizing the tragic love, fate, and cultural motifs of Bosnia and Herzegovina/Dalmatia. The style is romantic and patriotic, typical of the interwar period when folk literature was often used to strengthen Yugoslav national identity.

This is an extremely rare edition — it appears very rarely on the antiquarian market today and is considered a bibliographic rarity. It represents an interesting document from the early history of Yugoslav film thought. Jurković's work bears witness to the intellectual climate of the 1920s, when many authors sought modern forms for old folk motifs.