The Air Trembles as if the Sky is on Fire
7
The story of the World War II "national liberation" struggle was a firm ideological basis for a country known as the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia - a state where Slovenes spent 45 years of their history, a history which is also the one of filmmaking. A rich history indeed but there's one type of film inevitably linked to the faith in a federal country: the partisan movie.
The eternal battle of Partisan versus German comes in many genres and flavours, from existential drama to adrenaline action. The most notable however were the historical spectacles, the most famous of them the Oscar nominated Battle of Neretva. In a way, partisan films always reflected global trends: the massive, spectacular Neretva by director Veljko Bulajić corresponds to the era of Hollywood WWII epics and biblical spectacles. It all made sense - in a country where traditional religion was denied a state forming role, the partisan myth made it to the screen with a similar ideological mission.
Brynner, Welles... and Picasso
As a 2009 documentary by Igor Stoimenov reveals, the shooting of Neretva was no less epic than the battle itself. It featured thousands of extras, multi-million budgets, tons of military hardware (blown up) and, on top of all that, a bridge over Neretva built next to the original one just to take it down again. Imagine shooting Lord of the Rings without CGI and you've understood the process this film involved. The cast united the domestic elite with international stars like Yul Brynner, Orson Welles and Russian Sergei Bondarchuk. The film poster motif was created by none other than Pablo Picasso, who reportedly took on the job almost pro-bono, demanding only a crate of good wine as payment.
With President Tito a film buff and Yugoslavia sufficiently open to the west, Hollywood stars were always welcome. In Sutjeska, a sequel to Battle of Neretva, Tito himself was one of the main characters. The only one who could fill his shoes was superstar - and troublesome alcoholic - Richard Burton.
From epics to westerns
The epic period ended with the nineteen-seventies as the partisan film got a new inspiration in the form of spaghetti westerns. The idea of collective sacrifice was abandoned and the focus placed firmly on just one action hero. Said hero was typically played by Velimir Bata Živojinović. In 1972's Walter Defends Sarajevo by Hajrudin Krvavac, Živojinović shoot 186 Germans himself. Walter went down in history not just for the body count but also as the most viewed foreign film ever - in China.
Ultimately, the partisan film is reflected in dozens of titles, some of which have grown into cult movies and others which have been more or less forgotten. They definitely reflect the times in which they were made. A closer look at Krvavac's last big film, 1979's Partisan Squadron, loosely based on the story of actual first air force unit, reveals a pretty clear similarity to Star Wars.
TV too
Television in Yugoslavia might have been a decade behind the west in certain aspects but the overwhelming partisan topic took on a major role there as well. Written-off Heroes, a 13 episode series focusing on young Belgrade underground fighters taking on the Nazis, was an instant hit in 1974. Its popularity was such was that the show soon returned for another series. Serbian national TV has since aired nine reruns. The most recent was earlier this year and still drew enviable ratings.
It seems then that the partisan film has long outlived its era and underpinning ideology. The people have distanced themselves from these myths long ago, and the propagandist element has became a matter of irony. Yet these films and series keep being successfully aired on the networks and sold on DVD. Whether this is due to nostalgia or real artistic value it is too early to tell but it obviously still feels good to watch Partisans and Germans chasing each other through the forests of what used to be called Yugoslavia.