Television Review: Atentat (Povratak otpisanih, S1X05, 1978)

Atentat (S01E05)

Airdate: 29 January 1978

Written by: Dragan Marković
Directed by: Aleksandar Đorđević

Running Time: 54 minutes

The popular conception of World War Two has long been dominated by narratives that simplify the conflict into a binary struggle between Good Guys and Bad Guys. It is a view often favoured by propaganda where participants are motivated by clear patriotism and correct ideologies, while the opposition lacks any moral compass whatsoever. This simplistic dichotomy was the hallmark of many earlier war dramas, yet the Yugoslav Partisan genre began to shift during the 1970s. With the cultural thaw and slightly increased creative freedom compared to the stiffer periods of Communist Yugoslavia, filmmakers found more opportunity for nuance. The series Povratak otpisanih was a Partisan genre classic that initially appeared to follow the traditional template, yet the fifth episode, titled Atentat („Assassination”), represents a pivot towards complex human motives. It posits that individuals could take sides or participate in the war for deeply personal reasons rather than abstract ideology. While the episode achieves a level of darkness and psychological depth rare for its time, it ultimately fails to live up to its full potential, stumbling over narrative cohesion in its final acts.

As the title suggests, the plot of Atentat deals with an assassination, or more accurately, an attempted assassination of a high-ranking target. It is carried out by a group of young resistance activists who are supervised by Prle, a seasoned commander. The target is German General Meissner (Hanjo Hasse). In one night, while General Meissner is being driven to a ball in Belgrade attended by Gestapo top brass led by Colonel Müller and Major Krieger, the situation becomes tense. The activists ambush the car on the street, managing to cause casualties among the vehicle's escorts. However, the General’s life is saved by the prompt and disciplined reaction of his aide, Major Hesler (Klaus-Peter Thiele). Despite the danger, the General manages to arrive at the ball, but the trauma leaves him in such a bad mood that everyone begins to worry about his mental state.

The leadership within the Partisan ranks is tested by this failure. Prle is understandably unhappy because of his proteges failing to achieve their task, but the political reality forces higher-ups to intervene. To Prle's relief, they allow the youths to take a second chance. However, the operation is hamstrung by a severe lack of logistics and equipment. This is where the subplot involving Caki (Srđan Dedić), becomes critical. Caki appears to find a solution in the form of his neighbour Sreta (Živojin Milenković), who is a sergeant in the collaborationist militia and is in charge of an ordnance depot. Caki offers a huge stash of brandy in exchange for five hand grenades. He lies about his intention, claiming he needs the explosives to catch fish in the river. Sreta appears to agree to the transaction, but later changes his mind and informs on his neighbour to the Special Police. Caki is arrested and heavily beaten, but he stands firm. He continues to claim that he needed the explosives for fishing, a lie that seems absurd yet necessary for survival. When brought to Krsta Mišić, he feigns a lack of knowledge on how grenades actually work and does so in such a convincing way that Mišić lets him go.

That doesn't mean that the General’s life isn't in danger, albeit from some very different direction. The assassination attempt he had survived makes him order a reprisal in the form of a penal expedition that would wipe out the village of Vrbove. This is where the narrative takes a sharp turn into unprecedentedly dark territory for the series. One of the survivors of this massacre is Ljubiša, played by Adem Ćejvan, a peasant whose entire family was massacred. He goes to Belgrade to settle the score with General Meissner by killing him himself. He proves to be very resourceful and sets up an ideal ambush position in a ruined building near German headquarters.

In the meantime, General Meissner has become so paranoid that he even orders Müller and Krieger to be disarmed whenever they visit his headquarters. Major Hesler, who apparently does not like the Gestapo and considers their officers arrogant, wants to humiliate them by organising his own investigation in resistance activities. He becomes convinced that the resistance has a mole either in the Special Police or the Gestapo. He has narrowed possible suspects down to a single name, but decides to keep the name as a special surprise for his superior. Before he can give that name, events conspire to get him involved in a violent confrontation.

It turns out that Ljubiša actually has a brother in Belgrade, and that brother is none other than Mikula ( Dragomir "Gidra" Bojanić), a drink-loving Special Police agent. Ljubiša visits Mikula and makes his intentions towards the General clear, leaving his brother with a choice of whether to help him or not. Mikula is aghast, but determined to save the life of his last remaining relatives. He confides in his friend and colleague Isa, played by Stole Aranđelović, who promises that he would simply prevent the assassination. Yet, instead, he tells Krsta Mišić, who is delighted with the rare opportunity to humiliate his rival Major Krieger. Mišić informs on the General directly against the Gestapo. When Special Police agents and Wehrmacht soldiers under Major Hesler come to arrest Ljubiša, it leads to a final showdown. Tragically, Mikula, who came to save his brother, is killed by German soldiers, and Major Hesler dies when trying to catch Ljubiša, who also dies.

Later, Marija informs her friends that the assassination is pointless, because General Meissner suffered a nervous breakdown after the loss of his aide and is being recalled to Germany. The action is formally called off, but Prle nevertheless takes Caki and two of his comrades to use hand grenades. They throw them at the train station at exact moments the General departs. They manage to kill a couple of soldiers and slightly wound the General, after which Prle and his comrades disperse.

While Povratak otpisanih was, in its first episodes, much lighter in terms of mood than its predecessor, Otpisani, in this episode it goes into unprecedentedly dark territory. It is the first episode to show Germans committing horrible atrocities against Serbian civilians in the countryside—events that actually occurred in 1941 following the Communist-led uprising. These scenes are depicted in a very graphic and unpleasant way for a 1970s audience, grounding the war fiction in a historical reality that was often sanitised in earlier episodes.

The character of Ljubiša, who had his entire family taken out, reacts by trying to kill General Meissner, and does so for very personal reasons in a very personal way. The episode, on the other hand, shows that some other characters took a different course of action for very personal reasons. Sreta first agrees to be bribed, only to have a change of heart because of fear, while Mikula, who had joined the Special Police for the sake of material wealth and prestige, tries to save his brother. The tragic death of a character who was originally introduced as a buffoonish villain's sidekick underlines the dark overtones of the episode. This complexity in character motivation is what separates the episode from generic partisan films, even if it is not perfectly executed.

The episode provides some great acting, especially in the scene of the encounter between the two brothers, Ljubiša and Mikula. Adem Ćejvan and Dragomir "Gidra" Bojanić deliver stellar performances that ground the melodramatic elements in reality. Mikula was introduced in the beginning of the series as a bufoonish villain's sidekick, almost a comic relief, , yet here he is portrayed as tragic figure.

The episode is also notable for the casting of East German actor Hanjo Hasse in the role of General Meissner. Hasse is best known for playing main villains in Partisan film classics like The Bridge and Walter Defends Sarajevo, but his charisma is wasted in one-note role of madman.

The episode also features some of the actors who had played different roles in Otpisani. Ivo Jakšić, who played Nina's stepfather in the episode Izdajnik, here appears as a German military doctor, while Eugen Verber, who played the Volksdeutsche clockmaker Schmidt in Banjički logor, is here introduced as Schroeder, one of Krieger's subordinates.

While some elements of the episode are strong, it fails as a whole when viewed critically. The story of Ljubiša and Mikula feels emotionally disconnected from the general plot dealing with the regular protagonists. There was an opportunity in the character of Major Hesler to hint at the Germans being on the way to discover a mole, which the audience now knows to be Marija, but it was never used in an explicit or unambiguous way. This thread is wasted when Hesler leads a cowboy-style raid on Ljubiša's hiding place and gets killed for his efforts.

Another issue is the actual ending which is brought only to artificially give some sort of happy ending to otherwise grim story. The train station attack risks lives for something pointless and ends with Prle clowning after a successful escape, which is an unnecessary tonal shift that undermines the tragedy that preceded it.

Ultimately, Atentat is a flawed pice of otherwise great series, offering a glimpse into the human cost of war that was radical for its time, but unable to fully reconcile its thematic ambitions with its narrative structure.

RATING: 6/10 (++)

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