Television Review: Provala (Otpisani, S1X11, 1975)
Provala (S01E11)
Airdate: 2 March 1975
Written by: Dragan Marković & Siniša Pavić
Directed by: Aleksandar Đorđević
Running Time: 42 minutes
Contrary to the enduring popular perception of Otpisani as a purely romanticised, action-adventure series, the show was, from its inception, deeply rooted in the brutal reality of Belgrade under Nazi occupation. Its nominal creator, Dragan Marković, was himself a resistance veteran, and a fundamental motivation behind his work was to pay a proper, cinematic homage to his fallen comrades. This approach, however, was more pronounced and firmly anchored in documented events during the early episodes. As the series progressed, the narrative often leaned into broader, more archetypal resistance heroics. One of the rare later episodes to return explicitly to this foundation in historical fact is the eleventh instalment, Provala ("Breach"). This episode is a taut, politically charged spy thriller that draws direct inspiration from a devastating, real-life intelligence catastrophe within the Communist underground.
The title Provala succinctly encapsulates the episode’s core drama: the catastrophic uncovering, or "breach," of the Communist resistance organisation by the German occupiers and their collaborationist auxiliaries. The plot begins with a cold, efficient open in the offices of the Special Police, immediately establishing a tone of institutionalised brutality. Its chief, Krsta Mišić, interrogates a silent man (Dragan Obradović). Confident in the "direct and physical" methods of his subordinates Gojko and Limar, Mišić departs with a faint smile as screams emanate from behind the closed door. This brief scene masterfully establishes the omnipresent threat of betrayal and torture, the ever-looming risk that defined life for the resistance. The narrative then pivots to the heart of the breach: Slavko, a young clerk within the Special Police itself. Unhappy over his father’s fate as a prisoner of war following the 1941 invasion, Slavko has become a double agent. His method—photographing top-secret documents with a miniature camera—fails at a critical moment, forcing him to manually type a copy, a fateful decision that becomes the plot’s tragic hinge.
While Slavko performs his high-stakes duplicity, the consequences of the initial interrogation unfold. Gojko and Limar succeed, extracting from their broken prisoner the identity of his contact: the Sculptor. The Sculptor’s arrest triggers Slavko’s decision to go into hiding, leading him to the same safe house as Prle and Tihi, who are themselves lying low, acutely aware that they are conspicuous as the last survivors of their original cell. This convergence of narratives is cleverly handled. Prle and Tihi, the series’ icons, are deliberately sidelined for much of the episode’s central thriller mechanics, their presence serving primarily to maintain serial continuity. A subplot involving their chance encounter with former gymnasium classmates—Klara (Slobodanka Žugić), the colaborationist militiaman Miro (Aleksandar Hrnjaković), and the ex-ZBOR fascist Džokej (Branko Cvejić)—provides both levity and a different kind of menace. Their drunken reminiscence curdles into suspicion, setting in motion a strand of personal betrayal that will extend beyond this episode. It is a reminder that in occupied Belgrade, danger lurked not only in police headquarters but in chance meetings and old grudges.
The episode’s climax is a great example of mounting tension and futility. Against his better judgement, Slavko ventures to the river port to use his police credentials to safeguard the arrival of a high-ranking Partisan envoy from Zagreb. Prle and Tihi shadow him, a silent backup. Meanwhile, the breach widens. The Sculptor dies under torture without talking, but in his pocket, Mišić finds the typed copy of his own document. The realisation that he has a mole triggers a forensic investigation. The examination of typewriters leads inexorably to Slavko’s office, and the order for his arrest is issued. The ensuing port sequence is directed by Aleksandar Đorđević with a keen eye for action and spatial urgency. Slavko completes his mission, enabling the Zagreb envoy to escape, but is cornered. In a desperate, chaotic chase, Prle and Tihi attempt to intervene, but their efforts are uncharacteristically clumsy and ineffective. Slavko is gunned down, a lone, heroic sacrifice amidst the broader organisational collapse. His death is far more cinematically dramatic than the historical reality it references, including a firefight that dispatches two "redshirt" Special Police agents to somewhat balance the moral ledgers.
This dramatisation points to the fascinating and complex historical truth underpinning Provala. The character of Slavko is directly based on Janko Janković (1909–1944), a clerk who rose within the Special Police, becoming a close friend to Boško Bećarević, head of its Anti-Communist Section, all while acting as a Communist mole. Janković’s career, which saved hundreds of lives, ended in October 1943. The cause was the arrest of Vera Miletić (1920–1944), the newly appointed head of the Belgrade Communist Party organisation. Official post-war histories state that under torture, she gave up her contacts, including Janković. Both were executed before Belgrade's liberation. Miletić’s story adds a profound, later historical resonance: a year before her arrest, she gave birth to Mira Marković, who would become the influential wife of Serbian strongman Slobodan Milošević. Miletić’s role in the 1943 disaster was a subject of deep controversy within the Party—Tito himself blamed her for the debacle in 1948—and her legacy was a political football during the Milošević era. In the 1970s, this episode remained a profound embarrassment, which explains the serial’s need to fictionalise and dramatise the details, transforming a sordid betrayal and quiet arrest into a heroic last stand.
Đorđević’s direction shines in Provala, leveraging his penchant for genre cinema to craft an episode that functions as an efficient, stand-alone spy thriller. The pacing is brisk, the surveillance sequences are tense, and the final chase delivers a raw, kinetic energy. The script also wisely provides moments of levity to counterbalance the grim central plot, primarily through Čibi, Tihi’s younger brother. His romantic fumbling with neighbour Milica and his hilariously botched attempt to destroy a German lorry with a stick grenade—which fails because he doesn’t know how to activate it—offer a necessary human counterpoint. It is a reminder of the amateurish, improvisational nature of much resistance activity, a contrast to the professionalised peril of Slavko’s world.
In the end, Provala is a significant episode precisely because it re-engages with the historical veracity that initially inspired the series. It transcends being merely another adventure for the beloved protagonists, instead presenting a sobering examination of compromise, sacrifice, and the brutal efficiency of a police state. By centring the story on Slavko/Janković and weaving in the fraught legacy of Vera Miletić, it taps into a deeper, more ambiguous vein of Yugoslav history. The episode succeeds as a gripping thriller, but its enduring power lies in its shadow—the knowledge that this fiction is a polished reflection of a real and deeply painful provala, a breach whose consequences echoed through decades of political memory. It is Otpisani at its most ambitious: not just celebrating resistance, but dissecting its vulnerabilities and honouring the forgotten individuals who operated in the deepest shadows, where a single typed page could mean the difference between life and death for hundreds.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
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