Croatian Director Retraces Marco Polo’s Route For Documentary

Croatians claim him, saying he was born on the island of Korcula, and so do the Italians, claiming he was born in Venice, and now Croatian director Miro Brankovic has retraced the steps of the great merchant traveler Marco Polo for a documentary that is set to screen around the world.

Brankovic traveled the world to film his documentary, relying on Marco Polo’s book il Milone, a book which recorded his travels and did much to introduce Europeans to Central Asia and China.

“Until now Marco Polo’s complete route through 17 countries has not been filmed, and that is why I decided to do the documentary. The most complicated was to get permits for filming, like in Tajikistan we needed 9 permits,” said Brankovic.

“A lot of people claim that Polo never visited China because he never mentioned the Great Wall of China or tea. In his book he mentioned a plant that resembled saffron, he did not know it was a tea leaf,” explained Brankovic.

15 television houses around the world have bought the rights for the documentary, from South Korea, to Iran, to Italy.