Sefidanis and AI Celebrate “3,000 Years of Ohrid Literacy” at UIST
Sefidanis has presented a new culture-tech project that uses advanced AI video generation to tell one of the longest continuous stories of literacy in Europe. The short film “3,000 Years of Ohrid Literacy” was conceived and produced at Sefidanis and realized with the latest version of the Sora AI text-to-video model, as a special contribution to the Patron Day of the University for Information Science and Technology “St. Paul the Apostle” (UIST) in Ohrid.OpenAI+3Портал ТВМ+3LinkedIn+3
The film invites viewers on a continuous journey through key eras in the development of writing, education and culture in the Ohrid region. Beginning with prehistoric lake dwellings at the Bay of Bones on Lake Ohrid, it moves through the terraces of the ancient theatre, the medieval school of Saint Clement, the intimate atmosphere of lectures held beneath the Old Plane Tree with the poet Grigor Prlichev, mid-20th-century Yugoslav classrooms, and finally the contemporary AI and robotics laboratories of UIST “St. Paul the Apostle.” The result is a single cinematic arc that compresses three millennia of learning into one narrated experience, showing how each generation builds on the previous one.Wikipedia+5Портал ТВМ+5LinkedIn+5
The opening sequence is inspired by the Bay of Bones, today reconstructed as a “museum on water” – a faithful evocation of a prehistoric pile-dwelling settlement built on wooden platforms above the lake. Archaeological research shows that the original community here lived directly over the water between roughly the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age, leaving behind thousands of wooden piles and artefacts that testify to an organized, technologically sophisticated society long before written chronicles from the region.macedonia-timeless.com+2Discovering Macedonia+2 In the Sefidanis film, this setting becomes the symbolic “first classroom,” where the story of Ohrid’s literacy begins not with books, but with human ingenuity and memory.
From there, the narrative moves forward to the Ancient Theatre of Ohrid, a Hellenistic monument built around 200 BC and the only theatre of its type preserved in North Macedonia.exploreohrid.com Once used for performances and later gladiatorial games in Roman times, the theatre has been revived in recent decades as a stage for concerts, opera and drama overlooking Lake Ohrid. By weaving this space into the film, Sefidanis underlines that literacy is not only about letters and manuscripts, but also about public speech, performance and shared stories that echo across centuries.
The medieval segment centres on the Ohrid Literary School of Saint Clement, often described by historians as the first Slavic university. Established in 886 under Saint Clement of Ohrid, this school became one of the main centres for the development of Slavic literacy and church literature, continuing the work of Saints Cyril and Methodius and educating thousands of students who would carry the Slavic written tradition across the region and as far as Kievan Rus’.sesdiva.eu+3GPSmyCity+3Православен Богословски Факултет+3 In the film, the “light from the school of Saint Clement” is visualized as a turning point: from oral tradition to organized script, from isolated knowledge to a structured educational system.
Another powerful symbol in the story is the Old Plane Tree (Chinar) in the historic bazaar of Ohrid, a living monument estimated to be around 800–900 years old and officially protected as a natural landmark of North Macedonia.Wikipedia+2My Macedonia Blog+2 In local memory this tree has long functioned as a public meeting point and silent witness of the city’s history. Sefidanis situates imagined “fragrant lectures” with the 19th-century poet Grigor Prlichev under its branches, connecting literary creativity, everyday life and the physical environment of the city into one scene.
The film then shifts into the 20th century, evoking the warm atmosphere of Yugoslav classrooms, where mass education expanded access to reading, science and technology for generations of pupils across the former federation, including in Ohrid. This transition sets up the final movement of the story: a smooth passage into the current era, in which students at UIST “St. Paul the Apostle” learn in modern laboratories dedicated to artificial intelligence, robotics and advanced information technologies.Портал ТВМ+1 The message is clear: the same city that once hosted the first Slavic literary school now hosts a university whose mission is to educate experts for the digital and AI-driven future.
Technically, “3,000 Years of Ohrid Literacy” demonstrates how Sora, OpenAI’s text-to-video model, can be used as a creative tool for immersive educational storytelling. Sora can transform written prompts and reference images into high-quality video sequences up to a minute long, maintaining temporal coherence and visual realism across complex scenes.Element451 Higher Ed CRM+3OpenAI+3Wikipedia+3 By orchestrating a continuous camera journey through different historical periods and locations, Sefidanis shows how such models can condense large spans of cultural history into a form that is accessible to students, citizens and visitors, without losing the emotional weight of the underlying narrative.
The film was premiered in the entrance foyer of UIST “St. Paul the Apostle” as part of the university’s Patron Day celebrations on 22 October 2025, a ceremony dedicated to the institution’s spiritual protector and to its mission of combining information science, technology and innovation in the service of society.Портал ТВМ+2Портал ТВМ+2 Guests from the academic community, students and friends of the university could follow the entire arc of Ohrid’s educational history before entering the auditorium, while at the same time being introduced to the newest global trends in generative artificial intelligence.
“3,000 Years of Ohrid Literacy” continues a broader line of culture-tech projects in which Sefidanis uses AI and immersive media to re-interpret local heritage. Earlier, the company developed the virtual smart monument of the poet Grigor Prlichev for the city of Ohrid, combining advanced photogrammetry, speech recognition in Macedonian and a lifelike digital avatar to create an interactive monument that speaks to visitors day and night on the city’s main square.Ohrid.gov.mk – Ohrid.gov.mk Together, these initiatives show how deep-tech tools can extend the life of cultural memory, not by replacing traditional monuments and archives, but by adding new, experiential layers that resonate with younger generations.
For Sefidanis, “3,000 Years of Ohrid Literacy” is both a tribute and a roadmap. It honours the people, places and institutions that have carried the torch of learning from prehistoric settlements and Hellenistic stages, through medieval scriptoria and Ottoman-era bazaars, all the way to today’s AI laboratories. At the same time, it points forward – suggesting that the next chapters of Ohrid’s story will be written in close dialogue between human creativity and intelligent machines, with Sefidanis committed to keeping that dialogue rooted in the city’s unique cultural DNA.
Sources and original publication dates
TVM Television Ohrid – “Сефиданис и ВИ во служба на просветата и културата во Охрид: ‘3000 години охридска писменост’” (Sefidanis and AI in the service of education and culture in Ohrid: “3,000 Years of Ohrid Literacy”), TVM.mk, 24 October 2025.Портал ТВМ
TVM Television Ohrid – “УИНТ ‘Св. Апостол Павле’ утре ќе го одбележи денот посветен на својот патрон” (UIST “St. Paul the Apostle” to mark the day dedicated to its patron), TVM.mk, 21 October 2025.Портал ТВМ
LinkedIn – Post by Anis Sefidanis, PhD, “Сефиданис и ВИ во служба на просветата и културата во Охрид: ‘3000 години охридска писменост’”, describing the project and its realization at Sefidanis with the latest version of Sora AI, October 2025 (approximate date based on LinkedIn timestamp).LinkedIn
OpenAI – “Creating video from text – Sora,” official announcement of the Sora text-to-video model, 15 February 2025.OpenAI
Municipality of Ohrid – “Промовиран виртуелниот паметен споменик на Григор Прличев” (Virtual smart monument of Grigor Prlichev promoted), ohrid.gov.mk, 10 August 2022.Ohrid.gov.mk – Ohrid.gov.mk
Additional heritage context: “Bay of Bones – Water Museum in Ohrid,” macedonia-timeless.com; “The Bay of Bones Museum near Ohrid,” discoveringmacedonia.com; and “Ancient Theatre of Ohrid,” exploreohrid.com (all accessed December 2025).macedonia-timeless.com+2Discovering Macedonia+2
