Following an unsuccessful attempt to secure government funding for the project, Botorić decided to personally finance the film.

The decision steered Botorić into precarious financial straits, as the film's domestic box office revenues were barely enough to cover the cost of production.

The film opens with an adolescent Karađorđe (Milorad Petrović) killing an Ottoman official (Ilija Stanojević).

Following an unsuccessful rebellion against the Ottomans, Karađorđe is forced to flee Serbia and seek refuge in the Austrian Empire, across the Sava River.

In February 1804, following the Slaughter of the Knezes, surviving Serbian notables gather at the Orašac Assembly and decide to rebel against the Dahije, the renegade Janissaries who precipitated the massacre.

Karađorđe scores a string of victories against the Porte, routing the Ottomans at the Battle of Mišar, and eventually seizing Belgrade.

When Karađorđe returns to Serbia, Vulićević offers him a tent in a forest, and while he is sleeping, shoots and kills him with a rifle.

The film ends with a passage from The Mountain Wreath, an epic poem written by Njegoš, the national poet of Serbia and Montenegro.

[5] Botorić, who hoped to secure government funding for his future cinematic endeavors, thus felt that a feature film about Karađorđe would improve cinema's reputation domestically and increase its profile in the eyes of Serbia's leaders.

[7] Karađorđe was based on a number of sources, namely an eponymous stage play by the playwright Miloš Cvetić, various biographies and hagiographies about the rebel leader, as well as the epic poem The Start of the Revolt Against the Dahijas (Serbian: Početak bune protiv dahija), which is traditionally attributed to the bard Filip Višnjić.

[9] In order to lend the project greater credibility, Botorić enlisted actors from the National Theatre for the film.

[9] Outdoor scenes, such as the ones depicting the Orašac Assembly and the Battle of Mišar, were shot on the banks of the Danube and the Sava, mostly at Ada Ciganlija, as well as at the Belgrade Fortress, Topčider park, and the Banjica forest.

[14] Indoor scenes were filmed at the Hotel Paris, with props and set pieces provided by the National Theatre.

[5] Instead, Pathé opted for an ethnographic short whose subject was a Romani wedding at Ada Ciganlija, which became the first Serbian film to be screened abroad.

[24][e] Because Pathé had decided against distributing Karađorđe internationally, Botorić relied on the film's domestic box office revenue to recoup expenses, which it was barely able to cover.

[5] Having invested significant amounts of time and money in feature films and receiving little in return, Botorić decided that they were not worth the effort.

[2] Stanojević was also apparently dissuaded from partaking in feature films and remained committed to theatrical performances for the remainder of his life.

[6] A copy of it existed in Belgrade until 1947 or 1948, when its owner tossed it into the Danube to avoid being persecuted by Yugoslavia's new communist government.

In 1992, the premises of the Royal Compound in Belgrade's prestigious Dedinje neighbourhood were searched after a tip from Prince Tomislav, who stated that his father, King Alexander, once had a copy of the film in his possession and viewed it regularly.

[6] In the course of his research, Erdeljanović discovered that de Beéry was a Hungarian cinematographer, not a French one, whose real name was Lajos Zoltan Árpád Pitrolf, thus resolving the mystery of why Pathé did not have him listed on their payroll.

When Wostry described the contents of the feature, Erdeljanović became convinced that the Austrian Film Archive had a copy of Karađorđe in its possession.

[16] Damaged, but largely intact, the print was found among the effects of Ignaz Reinthaler, who had owned a cinema in Osijek before and during World War I, but relocated to Austria following Austria-Hungary's dissolution.

[16] The rediscovered footage was first screened to the public at the National Theatre on 14 February 2004, coinciding with the 200th anniversary of the start of the First Serbian Uprising.

The film specialists Dubravko and Marija Badalić, Lazar Lisinac, Bojan Perković and Stevan Stanić also contributed their expertise.

With the exception of the Battle of Mišar, the film's remaining scenes featured static camerawork, simple framing and no cuts.

[9] "Many scenes, particularly interiors, look "stagey" in the style familiar from much early cinema," the film scholar Roger Smither writes.

"[35] Nonetheless, the academics Mira and Antonín J. Liehm believe that Karađorđe represented a "crossing of boundaries between stage and screen".

"Such moments show real panache," he writes, "and give the film considerable interest in its own right, as well as the automatic value it has on account of its remarkable history.

[7] Sudar writes that Botorić's attempts to transform the public's perception of cinema from "mindless entertainment" to a legitimate art form, though primarily motivated by the prospect of financial reward, "may now be perceived as noble".

[5] Prior to its rediscovery, Karađorđe—and early Serbian cinema more broadly—had generally been overlooked by academics and scholars, who were of the belief that such motion pictures were of little historical or cinematic value.