U gori raste zelen bor

Antun Vrdoljak has a predilection for filming partisans through the thin cover of autumnal branches, which barely protect the troops as they emerge from hiding. Not only do these richly atmospheric shots show the precarious conditions under which the self-organized army was waging war, they also highlight their role in the landscape they are intimate with. With the exception of political commissar Ivan (Ivica Vidović), who has been shipped in from Zagreb to bring order and ideological prowess to the unit, every partisan is a peasant defending their home and family as well as fighting for the cause. In one of the pivotal moments of the film, undercover partisan commander Dikan (Boris Dvornik) speaks to an Ustasha only to find out that he is a peasant just like him, with a cow, wife, and mother back home. After the battle in which the Ustasha is killed, Dikan memorably declares: “No more talking to the enemy for me! As soon as you get to talking to them, it turns out they are your kin. I’ll stick to ‘Death to fascism, freedom to the people!’” His helpless anger packs a powerful punch, recalling the shared trauma and common ‘truth’ of the post-war period and posing an urgent question: what is our agency actually worth? In bringing together the same remarkable team he worked with on the film’s twin brother KAD ČUJEŠ ZVONA, Vrdoljak continues a painful, luminous saga of shared responsibility in what is often too painful to address.