Battle of Neretva is a 1969 Yugoslavian epic partisan film. Written by Stevan Bulajić and Veljko Bulajić, and directed by Veljko Bulajić, it is based on the true events of World War II. The Battle of the Neretva was due to a strategic plan for a combined Axis powers attack in 1943 against the Yugoslav Partisans. The plan was also known as the Fourth Enemy Offensive and occurred in the area of the Neretva river in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
US film poster
Bridge on the Neretva river, built and twice-destroyed during the shooting of the film.
Sergei Bondarchuk and Orson Welles at the premiere in Sarajevo on 29 November 1969.
Partisan film is the name for a subgenre of war films made in FPR/SFR Yugoslavia during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. In the broadest sense, main characteristics of Partisan films are that they are set in Yugoslavia during World War II and have Yugoslav Partisans as main protagonists, while the antagonists are Axis forces and their collaborators. According to Croatian film historian Ivo Škrabalo, Partisan film is "one of the most authentic genres that emerged from the Yugoslav cinema".
Walter Defends Sarajevo, a 1972 partisan film, has a cult status in the countries of former Yugoslavia, and was seen by 300 million Chinese viewers in the year of its release alone.
