I came across this film completely by chance. I have never heard of it before even though I was born in Slovenia , which used to be a part of Yugoslavia. The She Butterfly has a very simple premise. It is shot in a beautiful countryside whose inhabitants are puzzled and shocked by the murders of five millworkers. It is clear that it is a doing of a malevolent presence. 1h3min running time is perfect. The film never drags or loses momentum. It also contains some quirky humour which you will especially enjoy if you are from the Balkan region. But the highlight of the film, in my opinion, is the soundtrack. It amplifies the general atmosphere and gives the whole film a haunting and eerie feel. Definitely recomended if you are a fan of old school horror.

Story follows young man Strahinja who is in love with a local beauty Radojka, but their relationship has an obstacle - her father Zivan, who considers Strahinja as nothing but a loser. To prove that he's able to take care of himself and his future bride, Strahinja agrees to take vacancy in village mill... But, mill is known as a place where no one meets the dawn alive... Wow, so all the reviews say this is the scariest vampire movie ever! Is it? Odd that the title Leptirica means The She Butterfly.Anyway, IMDb says this was a TV movie, but it's hard to believe. It's not filmed like a TV movie. The imagery IS crazy. But to be honest, the movie is awfully slow to get to the point. There are countless minutes sitting in the meadow talking. I thought I was watching Tom Sawyer! And then there is the one obvious question -- if anyone who goes into the mill doesn't come out alive, why go into it? It's not that big either. Rather tiny in fact.In the end I have to say that it's an interesting film because it's a different take on the vampire theme. But it's not as good as the reviews suggest. Also, there is one really stupid thing.... for some reason every so often we hear these idiotic jungle sounds like a monkey call -- OOO OOO AHH AHH! And they are obviously done by a person. Really dumb.And despite the hype, the vampire is barely in the movie and the ending is sort of laughable. Piggy back ride and all.

Unfortunately, Leptirica is not so superior film at all. As first, it's actually some kind of horror comedy, maybe even parody of horror genre, but it seems to me that parody was not the intention of author Kadijevich, but some kind of black comedy. Acting is OK for (black) comedy, but if you see this TV-film (in former Yugoslavia term was "tv-drama") as horror, it's pretty bad acting, despite of presence of such distinguished actors as Slobodan Perovich and (very young) Petar Bozhovich. There is no real frightening scenes until the end (which is pretty frightening but narratively unclear), moreover, horror scenes are unintentionally funny. I have some respect for atmosphere of rural province, which is good but not too impressive, and especially for very delicate, ethereal beauty of little known Mirjana Nikolich in title role. I see that most of IMDb users were thrilled with this film in childhood,they have strong emotional bond with it, but actually, when you see it as grown man, quality level of Leptirica is not very high. Djordje Kadijevich has one really very very good movie, but it's Praznik, not Leptirica.

Leptirica is set in a small rural village in Serbia, in which the people rely on an old fashioned mill to grind flour for bread. The millers are turning up dead, and the community is faced with starvation. Thankfully, a new miller is found when a young bachelor with nothing to lose agrees to do the job.The monster in this story is a werewolf/vampire creature who attacks the mill at night. The young bachelor survives his encounter with the monster by chance and I think he was able to identify who the creature used to be before becoming the werewolf. So the men of the village find the grave of the person they believe to be the creature and plunge a stake through its heart, which should end the curse. Except in this legend, when the stake is driven in, a moth is released. This part wasn't really explained, but it seemed important for them to catch the moth. It gets away, and because the men anger a fellow villager by stealing his daughter away to be married, he uses the moth to get revenge. Again, I am not sure of the details of what we are supposed to assume how the moth was used or what it represented, but it lead to an amazing climax.SPOILER: the young bachelor and the daughter run away and plan to marry. The other men celebrate and drink until they pass out. While everyone sleeps, the man sneaks into his fiancé's room (which was guarded by another woman to prevent anything from happening until the wedding). Just as it looks like they are going to get intimate, the girl turns into another one of the creatures. It looked like she killed her fiancé, or maybe they killed each other. It was very memorable scene either way. As I say, I am still not sure exactly how everything happened, as I am not familiar with the legend, but it was very well done and I enjoyed it all the way through.