Valter brani Sarajevo

The lyrics of U2's 1997 hit 'Discotheque' apply perfectly to "Valter brani Sarajevo" and sum up my feelings about the movie:

'......you know you're chewing bubble-gum,*** you know what that is, but you still want some,*** you just can't get enough of that lovie-dovie stuff........'

On one hand, this is another one of the ridiculous state-sponsored war bonanzas taking up a large part of 1960s and '70s Yugoslav cinematography - most of them high on propaganda, cheap stereotypes and tear jerk moments seen coming from a mile away, designed to glorify the struggle of 'Yugoslav peoples' against German occupiers & domestic traitors. However, on the other, it is also a pretty well made 'lemonade with lotsa sugar' action flick with a decent plot and good characters that pull the viewer right in and don't let go.

It, of course, stars Bata Zivojinovic and Ljubisa Samardzic in yet another role that calls for 'Yugoslavia's top duo' to outsmart, outwit and eliminate as many Germans as humanly possible.

Supposedly, "Valter brani Sarajevo" was a hit of huge proportions in China where to this day our boy Bata is an enormous star. Well, I guess billion Chinese can't be wrong.

Valter was one of, if not the, most admired movie heroes in China.

When it was in the theater, I was a 8 years old boy, after the movie, this character is absolutely rooted in my heart.

He is the hero for almost one generation of Chinese.

Anyway, this movie was shown in 1980, though produced in 1972.

I am truly happy to know Valter is still alive.

God bless you, Velimir 'Bata' Zivojinovic .

Wish you could visit China and our city one day. I am planning to organize a fan club here in Dalian city, we need some movie posters of this Valter movie.

Please tell us where to buy it.

Thanks.

This movie is a typical Partizan "western" with "black-and-white" characters. The movie is losely inspired by actual events from WW II but its content could not be called historically true.

What is the most interesting thing about this movie is that it was immensely popular in the People Republic of China. I talked to quite a few Chinese people born in sixties, and literally everybody went with school to see the movie. I think that "Valter brani Sarajevo" could easily be the most popular foreign movie in China.

During NATO action in Serbia, when USA hit the Chinese embassy, the actor who played Valter, Bata Zivoinovic, visited wounded Chinese people in hospital, and they cherished his appearance there...

"Valter Brani Sarajevo" is a movie deeply ingrained in essence of practically everybody born in former Yugoslavia. There probably isn't a person here than hasn't seen it at least once. Its popularity and fond memories of it span over four decades now and none of the similar genre movies made before or since ever came close, not even Bulajic's war epics.

The phenomenon of it is really simple - it was the first action flick set in the WWII period. Before that one could only see deeply indoctrinated (and indoctrinating) movies about "just communist struggle against Nazi/bourgeois oppressors". This was the first time audience was actually able to just root for the good guys while not simultaneously being hammered by deep messages and propaganda. And the production crew did go to great lengths to make it happen.

There really is not much propaganda, if any, to be seen. There is hardly a mention of who the good guys belong to. There are no speeches of Tito, struggle, communism or proletariat. Germans are still bad, but you'd expect that in any war movie done by non-Germans.

There are however a lot of clichés and silly plots and sub-plots, clumsy extras and stunt men, the stuff you'd certainly expect in an action flick. There is also the most important ingredient - action. It's spectacular and there is lots of it. Silly script surprisingly doesn't detract from viewing pleasure and well paced directing really keeps it together.

"Valter" stands the test of time just as well as its American spaghetti- peers "Dirty Dozen" or "Kelly's Heroes". Nowadays we are all a bit smarter and nobody is required to watch it with naive reverence. There is a lot of unintentionally funny stuff in there, such as various goofs regarding anachronism, laughable German strategy as depicted, or the spy plot in which every principal character easily fools the other side by wearing stolen uniforms and having an impeccable accent when talking to his enemy. Still, even with all that, its easy to put disbelief on hold and follow the movie in what it is dead serious about - being spectacular and fun.

Spectacle and fun is what "Valter Brani Sarajevo" achieves and it not only makes for two hours well spent - it makes you wanna spend them again and again.

I am a Chinese of the 60s. Agree with everything my fellow Chinese says. The only other film/TV series close in my opinion is Band of Brothers. Not mentioned above is the fact the beautiful music which is such an integral part of the film. The great thing about the film is they don't picture the Germans as stereotypical demons, which makes it more convincing to the audience. I did some research on Yugoslav's part in WWII and would really like to know more about them. Unfortunately, the materials in Chinese and English are very limited. Really want to know about the musicians but no info on them is available either.Also just found out that all the German officers are played by German actors, which makes it very convincing. What is so pathetic is the hero was only ranked #9 of the best Serbian Actors & Actresses... Just dug out the history between the countries within Yugoslav and I can understand why they don't think that highly of the film like the Chinese do.