St. George Shoots the Dragon (Serbian: Свети Георгије убива аждаху, Sveti Georgije ubiva aždahu) is a Serbian World War I drama directed by Srđan Dragojević and written by Dušan Kovačević. The movie premiered on March 11, 2009.
With a budget of around €5 million, it was one of the most expensive Serbian movie productions to date. Some of the funds have been donated by the governments of Serbia (€1.55 million) and Republika Srpska (€750,000) who deemed the movie to be of national importance.
Kovačević's script is based on his 1984 theater play that was staged to great success in Belgrade's Atelje 212 and Novi Sad's Serbian National Theatre.
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The Serbian Campaign of World War I was fought from late July 1914, when Austria-Hungary invaded the Kingdom of Serbia at the outset of World War I, until the war's conclusion in November 1918. The front ranged from the Danube River to southern Macedonia and back north again, and it drew in forces from almost all the combatants of the war.
The Serbian Army declined severely towards the end of the war, falling from about 420,000 at its peak to about 100,000 at the moment of liberation. The Kingdom of Serbia lost more than 1,200,000 inhabitants during the war (both army and civilian losses), which represented over 29% of its overall population and 60% of its male population. According to estimates prepared by the Yugoslav government in 1924, Serbia lost 265,164 soldiers, or 25% of all mobilized people. By comparison, France lost 16.8%, Germany 15.4%, Russia 11.5%, and Italy 10.3%.