Television Review: Brodogradilište (Otpisani, S1X13, 1975)

Brodogradiište (S01E13)

Airdate: 16 March 1975

Written by: Dragan Marković & Siniša Pavić
Directed by: Aleksandar Đorđević

Running Time: 44 minutes

If Dragan Marković, the nominal creator of Otpisani, had held absolute creative control, the iconic series would have concluded as a far bleaker, more orthodox chronicle of sacrifice. His initial conception was starkly fatalistic: each of the thirteen episodes would end with the death of a prominent member of the resistance cell, a relentless procession of martyrs to the cause. Two decades earlier, when Yugoslav cinema laboured under the rigid yoke of Socialist Realism and the cult of WW2 martyrdom, this didactic approach might have found its purpose. But by the mid-1970s, the series was broadcast to a vastly different audience—one weaned on Western genre entertainment, seeking action, humour, and narratives that subtly pandered to the anti-establishment mores of the post-war generation. Consequently, while several protagonists, especially in the latter episodes, indeed met their ends, the fate of the two most iconic characters, Prle and Tihi, was destined to diverge from Marković’s grim blueprint. The finale, Brodogradilište (“The Shipyard”), masterfully deals with this tension between a prescribed ideological purity and the populist demands of its era, ultimately cementing the series’ legacy not through a blood sacrifice, but through a defiant, battered survival.

The episode opens with a chilling resonance. Gestapo Major Krieger, who in the very first episode demanded the Communist cell be “written off,” now confidently informs his superior, Colonel Müller, that “the city has gone quiet” and that his quarry indeed are “written off.” This proclamation, brimming with grim finality, is not entirely unfounded. Prle and Tihi are the last remnants of the original crew. They have not only lost their comrades-in-arms but, in the devastating Gestapo raid on Uncle’s barge, their closest friends and loved ones. The weight of this isolation fuels their first act: a personal, ruthless settling of scores. Stalking Miro and Džokej, the fascist turncoats and former friends who participated in the raid, they execute them in cold blood on the street. This is not the dispassionate work of ideologues but the raw, vengeful fury of men with nothing left to lose, establishing a tone of profound personal despair that suffuses the entire episode.

Their vengeance, however, is merely a prelude to one final, strategic mission. Directed by their superior Skale, they are tasked with destroying the Belgrade shipyard—a vital German logistical hub—before leaving the city to join a Partisan detachment. The mission planning introduces one of the episode’s most compelling moral conflicts. Prle, employing his trademark audacity, poses as a worker to confront the shipyard’s manager, Engineer Milivoj Ristić (Miodrag Radovanović). Ristić is a patriot, yet he is appalled by the wanton destruction of his life’s work and the prospect of throwing thousands of workers into unemployment. Prle’s blunt rationale—that a functioning shipyard aids the enemy more than it protects the workers—forces a heartbreaking, reluctant capitulation. This scene elevates the narrative beyond simple partisan heroics, introducing a nuanced tragedy where patriotic duty catastrophically contradicts humanistic and professional conscience.

Before the fateful raid, the script allows a moment of poignant reflection. Prle and Tihi reminisce about lost comrades, a quiet interlude that underscores their profound loneliness. Simultaneously, a subtle thematic thread unfolds through the younger brother, Čibi. Tihi’s attempts to shield him from the brutal war are visibly failing; Čibi begins smoking and cursing, a transformation his girlfriend Milica finds shocking. The simple, devastating explanation offered—“he grew up during the war”—serves as a succinct epitaph for an entire generation, reminding the viewer that the collateral damage of resistance extends far beyond the battlefield.

Prle’s relentless pursuit of closure leads him to Pera Uvce (the excellent Miodrag Gavrilović), a sympathetically portrayed police agent and black-market partner. Uvce provides crucial intelligence: Krsta Mišić, chief of the Special Police, and Krieger himself will be at the shipyard for a security meeting on the very night of the operation. In a tragically misguided attempt to contribute, Uvce and Čibi stage an ambush to stop their cars. The operation ends in disaster; Čibi escapes, but Uvce is killed. This sequence is critical, fulfilling the episode’s promise of consequential loss and eliminating a beloved secondary character, thereby maintaining the high stakes and the sombre mood.

The raid itself is a masterclass in escalating tension and technical execution. The initial infiltration, with Prle and Tihi silently dispatching sentries to allow the explosives expert Kosinus to plant his charges, is executed with precise, tense efficiency. However, the discovery of a body triggers a chaotic reversal. Kosinus is gunned down, but his devices detonate, engulfing the shipyard in spectacular nighttime pyrotechnics that remain impressive even by modern standards. What follows is a relentless, exhausting chase sequence. Hunted by soldiers and search dogs through the industrial labyrinth, Prle is shot in the leg and Tihi suffers a head wound. The direction here is exceptional, emphasising their laboured breathing, their stumbling gait, and the terrifying proximity of the baying hounds. Their narrow escape—covering their trail, receiving hurried medical aid in a safehouse—feels earned and desperate, a far cry from triumphant heroics. The episode concludes not with a fanfare, but with the arrival of Žile in a German lorry to spirit them away, and the poignant, melancholic sound of Čibi playing the series’ end theme on his harmonica.

Brodogradilište is not the series’ best episode, nor is it a perfect finale. Its plot mechanics are at times contingent, and the moral complexity introduced with Engineer Ristić is somewhat abandoned in the subsequent explosion. Yet, it functions superlatively within the series’ arc. The generally dark tone, established from Krieger’s opening boast, is sustained throughout. Ominous foreshadowing—Prle’s visit to his mother, Uvce’s tender family moments—casts a pall over the narrative, confirming that in this war, survival is the exception, not the rule. The final action sequence is brilliantly directed, featuring gritty stunt work and a palpable sense of visceral peril that makes the protagonists’ survival feel less like a guarantee and more like a miracle.

Ultimately, the producers’ most astute decision was the dual survival—not only of the protagonists but of the primary antagonists as well. Before the end of initial airing, it was abundantly clear that the audience’s affinity for the charismatic, roguish Prle and the stoic, lethal Tihi was unparalleled. To kill them would have been a narrative betrayal of the relationship the series had forged with its viewers. The sequel—the 1976 feature film Povratak otpisanih and the 1978 eponymous series—was already an inevitability. Thus, both the efficient Mišić and the cunning, increasingly nuanced Krieger had to live to resume their roles as worthy adversaries. Krieger’s trajectory in this episode is particularly telling; for once, he is allowed a moment of triumphant, almost leisurely confidence, even indulging in a romantic subplot with his secretary Elsa (Slavica Stefanović), humanising him just enough to make him a more enduring foe.

Brodogradilište succeeds precisely because it subverts its creator’s initial, austere vision. It delivers the required action and sacrifice—Kosinus and Uvce are added to the long roster of the “written off”—but it recognises that the cultural moment demanded icons, not just martyrs. It provides a finale that is tense, emotionally resonant, and technically accomplished, while leaving the door decisively ajar for the future adventures that the Yugoslav public craved. It is a finale that understands its audience, offering a battered, bloody, but ultimately hopeful conclusion that ensured Prle and Tihi would live to fight another day, both on screen and in the popular imagination.

RATING: 7/10 (+++)

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