The Day That Shook the World


The Day That Shook the World is a 1975 Czechoslovak-Yugoslav-German co-production film directed by Veljko Bulajić, starring Christopher Plummer and Florinda Bolkan. The film is about the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie in Sarajevo in 1914 and the immediate aftermath that led to the outbreak of World War I.
When the only surviving heir to Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was killed by Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian nationalist, on 28 June 1914, his death set in motion a chain of events that resulted in the First World War. The movie chronicles the events surrounding that death and its aftermath. The assassination gave the Germans and Austrians reason to fear that the Russian Empire was actively fomenting unrest in the Balkans, since Serbia was a bone of contention throughout the region.
Upon its release, The Day That Shook the World was met with mixed reviews. The New York Times critic described the film as a "footnote to history that is rarely moving". The movie was dubbed in theatres and has aired only once on television, on Czechoslovak Television two years after its release in cinemas.

Cast

The film was released to cinemas on 31 October 1977 in Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. English-language premieres were in January 1977 in the UK and US. American International Pictures released the movie in 1977 with English dubbing. Later in the 1990s the movie was released to VHS.
In November 2014 was released on DVD.

Awards

The film won one award at the 1976 San Sebastián International Film Festival in Special Mention category. The film was also selected as the Yugoslav entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 48th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.