The Balkans is one of the most complex and compelling production environments in Europe. The stories are here — the monuments, the living witnesses, the landscapes, the music, the tensions that never fully resolved — but finding them, accessing them, and filming them responsibly requires local knowledge that takes years to build.
We have built that knowledge. Legacy Balkans operates across Bosnia, Serbia, North Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, Croatia, and Bulgaria, with a network of fixers, translators, drivers, archivists, and local contacts that covers all of these territories. When you arrive with a camera and a story, we make sure you can tell it.
What we provide
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Location Scouting Pre-production recce for specific sites, architecture, landscapes, or communities. We provide reference photography, access notes, and logistics assessments before you travel.
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Translation & Interpretation Professional translation across Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian, Macedonian, and Albanian. Consecutive and simultaneous interpretation for interviews and briefings.
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Access & Facilitation Introductions to experts, witnesses, community leaders, archivists, and institutions. We open doors that a foreign crew cannot open alone.
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Permits & Clearances Liaison with municipal authorities, cultural institutions, and private landowners for filming permissions. Knowledge of local broadcast and publication regulations.
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Production Logistics Drivers, vehicles, equipment transport, accommodation bookings, and day-to-day schedule management. We handle the infrastructure so you can focus on the journalism.
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Archive Research Access to photographic and film archives, historical newspapers, and documentary materials across the region. We know which archives hold what, and how to use them.
Who we work with
Our media clients include documentary production companies, newspaper and magazine correspondents, television news teams, podcast producers, and independent filmmakers. Projects have covered Yugoslav modernism, the 1990s wars, the Ottoman heritage of the region, contemporary politics, and the music and food cultures of the Balkans.
Journalist familiarisation trips
We also coordinate press familiarisation trips — structured itineraries for journalists who want an overview of the region rather than a single story. These typically run three to five days and are designed to give editorial teams the context they need to commission work with confidence.
Sensitivity and ethics
This region carries unresolved trauma. We work only with productions that approach it seriously. We will advise on what communities and individuals have agreed to speak on record and under what conditions, and we will not facilitate access that we believe causes harm. If you are in doubt about the ethics of a particular approach, we will tell you.