partizan flicks
Posted by popkitchen | Filed under films
picasso poster for the battle of neretva
Big-budget action films are not being made in any of the post-Yugoslav countries. If anyone dares, the product looks like a cheap imitation of a Hollywood film, with audiences staying clear of cinemas. New generations could not envision that former country, aside from artistic achievements embodied in black wave cinema and popular comedies, had a developed movie industry, in which action films dealing with the conflict between Nazis and partisans held a prominent spot.
After its premiere in Motuvun film festival in Istria, Croatia, a documentary on partizan films had its screening in Belgrade this weekend. Directed by Igor Stoimenov, who already embarked on a similar nostalgic journey with a series Robna kuca (Department Store) on Yugoslav pop cultural phenomena (new wave music, football, Sarajevo winter Olympics from 84), it is not focusing on their politics, but the myths surrounding the films, authors and actors and accompanying trivia.
valter beer
From epic battles (The Battle on Neretva, starring Orson Welles and Yul Bryner) to partizan thrillers and westerns, authors tell a story on the possibly most unique film genre to emerge from Yugoslavia. Naturally, partizan films portrayed the dominant ideology of the times, reducing the complex national conflict, in addition to occupation by the Germans, to a simplistic story about good and evil. In the retrospect, they did not manage to indoctrinate its audience – generations who grew up with it, managed to take down Communism, but more importantly lead the country into bloody civil war. It seems that the basic anti-Fascist message eluded most of them.
Is it nostalgia for times long gone or resurgence of collective memory, yet story about Richard Burton playing Tito, drunk while at it (“they brought a whole boat of Chivas for him”), Picasso making a poster for Neretva film and Das ist Valter being the most popular film in China for decades, has to provoke some kind of a sentiment.
Das ist Valter dubbed in Chinese
Tags: yugoslav cinema partizan films popular culture
