Television Review: Izdajnik (Otpisani, S1X03, 1975)

Izdajnik (S01E03)

Airdate: 5 January 1975

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

Running Time: 48 minutes

Otpisani (The Written-Offs) enjoys a hallowed place in the collective memory of the former Yugoslavia, often recalled with a fond, nostalgic glow as prime entertainment, a thrilling series about dashing young resistance fighters outwitting their Nazi occupiers. This perception, however, obscures the show’s far grimmer and more morally complex core. From its outset, the series never shied away from the brutal and tragic realities of life under World War II occupation, dealing into uncomfortable ethical quandaries faced by those engaged in clandestine warfare. This penchant for darkness reaches a profound crescendo in its third episode, Izdajnik (The Traitor). Here, the cost of resistance is counted in betrayal, sacrifice, and a chilling erosion of trust, marking a decisive tonal shift from adventurous romp to sombre espionage thriller.

The first two episodes, Bolnica and Garaža, established a pattern of audacious, successful operations. The protagonists, led by the cool Tihi (Voja Brajović) and the impulsive Prle (Dragan Nikolić), rescued a captured Party leader from a heavily guarded hospital and orchestrated the spectacular destruction of dozens of German vehicles in a garage. Izdajnik immediately dismantles any sense of invincibility, demonstrating that such triumphs incur a dire price. The first to pay is someone entirely incidental: Lili, the exotic nightclub dancer who merely facilitated Tihi’s access to the garage. Her arrest and swift execution by the Gestapo is relayed with cold, bureaucratic finality to a guilt-stricken Zriki (Čedomir Petrović). This early moment sets the episode’s key theme: the war’s violence indiscriminately consumes the peripherally involved as readily as the committed combatants.

This casualty occurs amidst a leadership transition, with the cell’s commander, Milan, departing for the Partisan countryside and being replaced by the new liaison, Lela (Mira Dinulović). The operational atmosphere grows increasingly paranoid as Prle, through his corrupt police contact Pera “Uvce,” learns the Special Police has a high-level mole within their ranks, known only by the codename “Beli” (The White). Tihi’s reflexive loyalty leads him to dismiss the possibility, a faith that the narrative systematically destroys. Lela tasks their own mole within the Special Police, Slavko (Miroljub Lešo), with uncovering Beli’s identity. Slavko succeeds only in photographing a sample of Beli’s handwriting, but this proves fatal. Zriki, upon seeing the photograph, instantly recognises the traitor. Before he can act on this knowledge, he is hunted down and killed by Special Police agents. The resistance is now haemorrhaging its members not to front-line combat, but to the shadow war of counter-intelligence.

The net tightens further with the arrest of Tihi’s girlfriend, Nina, an act that confirms Beli’s treachery and existence. In response, Prle formulates a desperate, audacious plan: the assassination of the formidable Special Police chief, Nikola. The rationale is that his tactical brilliance is the greatest threat, and his removal would grant the cell vital breathing space. The ensuing ambush, executed by Prle, Tihi, Mile, and Paja, is a tactical success. Yet, in his dying moments, Nikola unveils the devastating truth by addressing Mile as “Beli.”Mile’s confession—that he was captured, tortured, and blackmailed into cooperation—completes the episode’s tragic arc. His subsequent, suicidal engagement with a German patrol in a bid for redemption is a melodramatic flourish, but it serves the narrative’s purpose: even betrayal is born from weakness and pain, not mere villainy.

Structurally, Izdajnik is notably less reliant on the large-scale action set pieces of its predecessors. It functions far more as a conventional spy thriller, a chamber piece of suspicion and investigation where the primary antagonists are not German soldiers but collaborationist Serbs within the Nedić administration’s security apparatus. The German patrol at the climax feels almost like an obligatory concession to the action genre, inserted primarily to provide a cinematically redemptive end for the traitor. The real drama lies in the fraught interactions between the resistance cell and the quisling Serbian state machinery.

The human cost laid bare is immense. Tihi loses two of his four closest friends introduced in the premiere. Nina’s arrest reveals her Jewish heritage, all but sealing her fate, a horror compounded when she is taken to see her tortured stepfather in the infamous Banjica camp. The episode deliberately introduces the mothers of Prle and Zriki, grounding the high-stakes espionage in the tangible, domestic worry of families left behind. This grim reality is the episode’s backbone.

As with the rest of the series, the script by Dragan Marković and Siniša Pavić draws from historical events but compresses and fictionalises them for dramatic effect. The “Appeal to the Serbian Nation” of August 1941, which leads to the imprisonment of intellectuals, is inaccurately attributed to General Milan Nedić (who actually came to power days after its issuance). The concept of a high-ranking mole echoes the real-life betrayal by Communist Youth official Ratko Mitrović Šilja. Most directly, the assassination of Chief Nikola is modelled on the ambush and killing of Đorđe Kosmajac, a top Special Police agent, in March 1942. By weaving these truths into its narrative, Izdajnik transcends mere thriller tropes to offer a stark reflection on the pervasive fear, moral compromise, and personal devastation that defined underground resistance in occupied Belgrade. It is a powerful, sobering instalment that confirms Otpisani was always far more than simple adventure television; it was a unflinching exploration of war’s corrosive impact on the human spirit.

RATING: 7/10 (+++)

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