'Ranjenici, pjesmu!': The Role of Songs in Yugoslav Partisan Films

• In Event: Yugoslav Aesthetics IV: Yugoslav Partisan Film—Memories, Archives, and Afterlives

Abstract

This presentation will investigate the use and symbolic function of Yugoslav Partisan songs in films about the National War of Liberation (NOB). As part of wartime culture, the integration of Partisan songs in Yugoslav war films anchored the historical reenactments in local folk culture. Beyond the historical meaning, filmmakers also used songs to generate affect. In the midst of the climactic battle in Veljko Bulajić’s The Battle of Neretva (1969), a wounded Partisan leads other wounded fighters and those infected with typhus in singing “Fall oh force and injustice” (“Padaj silo i nepravdo”). The song echoes across the battlefield, stunning Nazi German officers and their Croatian fascist collaborators, halting their attack, while it empowers the Partisans to charge against the enemy. The original song was inspired by the sixteenth century Hvar Rebellion. Bulajić’s film popularized the song as a Partisan one. Yugoslav filmmakers also produced films based on specific songs, elevating their cultural significance from regional to national importance. Fadil Hadžić filmed On the Mountain of Konjuh (1966) based on a wartime Partisan song “Konjuh planinom”, written in 1941 by Miloš Popović Đurin. The song describes the funeral of a fallen proletarian, buried by his comrades on Konjuh Mountain. The Bosnian author Meša Selimović co-wrote the script for the 1966 film. This presentation will consider how Yugoslav filmmakers interpreted Partisan songs, drawing on their mood, tone, and imagery to frame their reenactment of the national struggle for liberation.

Author

• Zdenko Mandusic, U of Toronto (Canada)