Valter

Serbian documentary "Valter" is a story about myths and our need for myths. It raise questions about what is heroism and who are the (real) heroes? It is a portrait of legendary Yugoslav war hero Vladimir Peric Valter, partisan and communist, mostly known as a leader of the underground resistance in Sarajevo during the last years of WWII, where he was killed on the day of Sarajevo's liberation, April 6, 1945.

But also, it is a portrait of Velimir Bata Zivojinovic, legendary Yugoslav actor who made more then 330 movies (??!) during his 55 years-long career (??!). One of the most popular roles he ever played was a role of Valter in a block-buster: "Valter defends Sarajevo" in 1972. The movie was very popular in Yugoslavia, but also in Eastern Europe, and in Asia, especially in China. At one point in 1970's, this movie was probably seen by more people than any other movie in history (!!) - thanks to the extreme popularity of the movie in China.

But who was a hero? The guy in the movies? The actor? Or the "real" Valter about whom we don't know that much, actually, except for the movie, which we know is just an easy entertaining and communist-propaganda kill-one-hundred-Nazis-in-2-minutes-action show?

However, we loved him. Them. Both. Didn't we? We still do, actually. We love Valter, the hero, for sure.