Boj na Kosovu

"The Battle of Kosovo", 1989 TV film is, of course, completely fictitious account of an historical event - a battle which took place in the Kosovo Field six centuries ago, between Ottoman Empire military and military coalition of central and south European Christian kingdoms and principalities. However, it was produced with very specific purpose and intent in extremely precarious times for Serbia and Yugoslav union: as media centerpiece for ethnic mobilization of Serbs in Serbia and around Yugoslavia prior to the war of the 90's.

Film itself was produced as a part of the centennial celebration of this historic battle, which took place exactly 600 years ago to 1989. Central event, which attracted audience of over a million Serbs, most of whom came from Serbia proper, was held on June 28 1989 on an open meadow known as Gazimestan at Kosovo Field, a battle historic site near city of Pristina - today capital of Republic of Kosova, at the time Yugoslav autonomous province in grave turmoil already for entire decade, which culminated in unlawful stripping of provincial autonomy by Serbian political establishment just year or so prior to film release and anniversary celebration. Gathering at Gazimestant peaked, and is today remembered for, with then-president of Socialist Republic of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic, notorious Gazimestan Speech.

And like Milosevic speech and gathering itself, movie too gained its notoriety among researchers and wider public outside Serbia as an example how media, and art in particular, got involved assuming an ominous role in social and political justification of constitutional breach, one that led to Socialist Republic of Serbia absorption of the province and later into its preparation for soon to erupt wars and ethnic cleansing, masterminded and steered by political and military leadership of this former republic, with Slobodan Milosevic at its helm, and which ensued just two years later and raged for entire decade, taking lives of hundreds of thousands, mostly non-Serbs, and livelihood and dignity of a millions of people including countless Serbs.

In that sense numerous researchers and historians, even in Serbia among more progressive intellectuals and critics, often place "The Battle of Kosovo" into "propaganda film" category, or more broadly, into Serbian wider pre-90's war propaganda effort in preparation for what was coming around the corner.

And since it certainly fits the bill, this piece of propaganda film can be and is perceived as Serbian version of "The Birth of a Nation" or "Triumph of the Will", only executed with much, much less talent and with little if any wider influence on development of art of filmmaking. Though, like both of these anthological master-pieces, "The Battle of Kosovo" too provides some poetical and visual appeal, depending on taste, and like both "The Birth of a Nation" and "Triumph of the Will", despite some obvious and palpable qualities, it was too immersed into deep controversy.

Unfortunately, however, with its narrations, poetics and imaging in portrayal of an "old enemy" and intruding "Other", the "Turk", film was extremely efficient in stimulating regressive identity atavisms, by signaling and directing viewers emotional reactions toward the "New Turk" of the age: Bosnian Muslim -Bosniaks and Kosovar Muslim -Albanians. As such it had enormous and undeniable influence on perpetuation of hatred and myth-making, while encouraging rise of new wave of Serbian ethno-nationalism, ethnic and social mobilization which will explode into vengeful war campaigns against this perceived new "old enemy", despite obvious anachronism, just two years later, between 1991 and 2000, with horrible and tragic consequences.

I watched this film whilst taking a course on the Byzantine Commonwealth, as it depicts one of the most important battles in Balkan history as Byzantium verged on collapse and the Ottomans were gearing up to dominate the region. I watched the English-subtitled version obviously because I am an Amerikanka who doesn't speak Serb-Croatian.

This film is commendable because the acting is very solid, and the film overall is not overly dramatized; in other words, it has a very realistic quality to it. It was filmed on the Serbian fortress of Smederevo, which was the site of a defeat of the Serbs further in the 1450's as the Ottomans pushed northwards following the Battles of Maritza and Kosovo.

Apparently this film received funding from Milosevic back in 1989, but it is in no way nationalistic, nor does it try to fabricate events for the sake of embellishing the plot. There are few reliable historical accounts of the actual Battle of Kosovo, and the film does a good job of sticking to the main points; a few subtle side plots are apparent that contribute to some of the greater themes in Serbian history (ie. the conversion of certain Serbs to Islam in order to curry favor with the Ottoman occupiers).

This is a great film for anyone studying medieval Europe, the Balkans, the Byzantine Empire, the Ottoman Empire, or historical resistance to attempts at occupation.

Reading comment of the man who's nickname is ''ferrari'' made me write this review. First of all as a Serb i can just totally disagree with that the Serbian people is growing hatred to other nations through the centuries.Yes it's true,we(Serbia)were under the reign of Ottoman Empire for almost five centuries and it is normal that our ancestors have fought against them but not from hatred,they were only protecting their families,their homes,and their fatherland.But enough with history. Movie has no any similarity with Gibson's Braveheart.Different time ,different places,different battles.However,movie follows a real historical battle on Kosovo field in June 1389.Most of the characters in film are real true Serbian monarchs and warriors,dukes,knights and so on... Real great epic/history movie of great heroic days but also a great story of betrayal and strength of one small people(Serbian)under very powerful oppressor. Fantastic film for anyone who likes historical movies and also for ones that don't.Because,there's a lot of individual portraits of people in hard times.THIS NEXT LINE IS FOR IMDb'S ADMINISTRATORS ONLY(DELETE THIS BEFORE YOU PUBLISH MY REVIEW,I HAVE TO ASK YOU:DO YOU WANT ME TO WRITE REVIEWS(1 OR 2 EACH DAY,)OF EX-YUGOSLAVIAN MOVIES MOVIES???CAUSE I AM FROM SERBIA,AS YOU ALREADY KNOW,AND I HAVE WATCHED SURELY OVER 450 EX-YU FILMS,SO TELL ME DOES IT MAKES ANY GOOD FOR YOU?CAUSE I WANT IN THIS WAY TO MAKE ''OUR'' FILMS LITTLE CLOSER TO WIDER AUDIENCE.ANSWER ME IN E-MAIL WHEN YOU SEND ME NOTIFICATION DID YOU PUT THIS MY REVIEW ON YOUR SITE.DELETE THIS TEXT IN CAPS LOCK,HEHEHE

Kosovo is not a country! This is Yugoslavian movie, Serbian to be precise! Please before you are posting something do your research and post true fact! Thank you!

Does somebody know where I can watch it online or rent it with english subtitles? Thank you