How did “Halliard’s Heroes” get caught up in the contemporary Serbian controversy?

Before anyone even saw it Halyard’s heroesShe was already mired in scandal.

In an industry presentation at the Sarajevo Film Festival’s CineLink Forum in August, Telekom Srbija, which produced Halyard’s heroes In collaboration with Contrast Studios, clips from the World War II epic were shown. The film, by Serbian actor and director Radosh Bajić, was still in post-production and the clips were only meant to give audiences an idea of ​​the scope of the production, one of the biggest and most ambitious films ever made in the region.

Instead, they sparked a political backlash. Some accused the film, which tells the story of the historic rescue of American pilots by Serb fighters in Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia in 1944, of glorifying Serb nationalist groups. Benjamin Caric, the mayor of Sarajevo, called the film “revisionist” and called on the festival organizers to distance themselves from the producers and the show, which they promptly did.

Carrick continued to add fuel to the fire. twitter And that the film caused “severe damage to the festival and the city of Sarajevo.”

All this for a movie that no one has seen yet. It would be months later than before Halyard’s heroes It had its official world premiere in the Serbian capital Belgrade on October 10. It premiered to an international audience at the Black Nights Film Festival in Tallinn, Estonia in November.

On its surface, there is nothing particularly controversial Halyard’s heroes. The film explores an almost forgotten corner of World War II history: the gritty and true story of Operation Halyard, a rescue operation organized by the wartime US spy agency OSS, to use Serbian resistance fighters to help rescue American and Allied pilots. Trapped behind enemy lines in the final days of the war. The forces, led by Serbian General Draza Mihajlović, rescued more than 500 airmen and personnel, the largest rescue of American pilots in history.

Rescue is at the heart of the film, however Halyard’s heroes It is also the story of Serbian history, particularly the complex and chaotic period during the German occupation. Director Bajić builds the film as the story of three brothers, who represented the political movements of the time, and whose lives were torn between conflicting ideologies. Mirko joins Mihailović’s pro-nationalist Yugoslav army, often known as the Chetniks. Brother Sreten works with the Communist Party under the leadership of Marshal Tito. The youngest son, Elijah, is stuck between them.

“The film is really a story of civil war, a story of torn communities and torn families,” says Lt. Col. John Cappello, an environmental consultant. Halyard’s heroes. The 25-year U.S. Air Force veteran serves as president of the Halyard Mission Foundation, a group created to “educate, celebrate and raise awareness” of the Halyard mission and the role the Serbs played in its success. “The Civil War was very complicated,” Capello says.

Complex because while the Chetniks—an umbrella term for nationalist and monarchist forces, not all of which were under Mihailović’s command—and partisans fought the Nazi occupiers, they also fought each other. Tito’s supporters were allied with the Soviet Union and envisioned a communist future for Yugoslavia. Mihailović wanted to re-establish the Yugoslav monarchy. There are allegations on both sides of cooperation or coordination with Axis powers, the stuff of violent historical debates that continue to this day.

After the war, and the defeat of General Mihailović’s forces by Tito, Mihailović was tried and convicted of high treason by the new communist Yugoslav government and executed by firing squad. His conviction was only overturned after his death in 2015, when the Serbian Supreme Court ruled that Mihajlović’s trial and conviction were politically and ideologically motivated.

A year and a half after his execution, US President Harry Truman awarded Mihailovitch the US Legion of Merit for his role in leading Operation Halyard. President Truman said in his speech that Mihailovic and the forces under his command “were instrumental in achieving the final victory for the Allies.”

All this history is of great importance, because the battle over conflicting interpretations of Serbian history in the Balkans is a central part of modern political debates. The debate is over Halyard’s heroes What happened in Sarajevo had less to do with the content of the film, or even with the historical debate about the role of General Mihailovic and the Chetniks, than with the politics of the present moment.

When Sarajevo Mayor Karic tweeted about it Halyard’s heroesShe linked Mihajlović (whom she described as a “convicted war criminal”) and Ratko Mladić and Radovan Karadzic, two Bosnian Serb leaders who were convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity in part for their roles in the Siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica massacre during World War II. The Bosnian war that ravaged the region in the 1990s. Carrick was using the war experience of the 1990s to frame the history of World War II depicted in the film. She’s not the first to make contact. Some of those Serbian nationalist groups in the 1990s also called themselves Chetniks, in honor of World War II fighters.

“Chetnik means something like a guerrilla fighter, but it is a term that has been misused and is the source of a lot of very emotional responses today,” Capello says. “The term means very different things to different people. There are Chetnik groups in the United States today, in Chicago, in San Diego, whose fathers and grandfathers fought with General Mihailovic, resisting the Germans. They see the Chetniks as heroes. …I would tell this story, that saving… These American pilots had a moment when there was coordination and cooperation, even between groups that were fighting each other. Partisan forces helped the Chetnik forces, the Royalist forces, rescue the Americans.

Producers for Halyard’s heroesMany in the US government would like to frame the film’s story as an example of, in Capello’s words, “140 years of strong diplomatic relations between the United States and Serbia,” avoiding “deviation” from “Serbian policy.” The 1990s, when the United States and Serbia were at loggerheads, with Washington viewing Belgrade as the main aggressor in the wars that tore apart Yugoslavia. Diplomatic relations between the two countries reached a historic low in 1999 when the United States led a NATO bombing campaign against Serbian forces to force them to withdraw from the disputed region of Kosovo.

“When you talk to Serbs these days about America, the theme that comes up is: ‘You bombed us.’ ‘You bombed us, NATO, NATO, NATO,’” Capello says. “I think overcoming those negative narratives without ignoring them is important.” “

The relationship between the United States and Serbia is about much more than just the conflicts of the 1990s. “We have been allies for most of our history and — as this film makes clear — we have been allies,” Christopher Hill, the U.S. ambassador to Serbia, said in an email response. Hollywood Reporter.

Capello believes that the negative image of “the role played by Serbs in the 1990s” in the Balkans has obscured the deep historical ties between Serbia and the United States.

“The Serbs were the only ones in this region who could say they were allies (of the United States) during both world wars. “They suffered greatly because of this.”

This is American framing Halyard’s heroes It has its own very current political overtones. Since the 1990s, and Serbia’s diplomatic break from the United States, Russia has made inroads in the region. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, whose populist Serbian Progressive Party won a landslide victory in snap parliamentary elections on Sunday, December 17, has been accused of cozying up to Vladimir Putin, and has refused to impose sanctions on Russia in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine. He described Russia as a “traditional friend” of Serbia. Serbia has been a candidate for European Union membership since 2014, but Vucic’s friendly stance toward Moscow did not help Belgrade’s efforts. Many in Europe, and many in Washington, would reject the idea of ​​forming another pro-Russian government in the European Union alongside Viktor Orban’s government in Hungary.

For those who prefer to see Belgrade looking west, Halyard’s heroes It offers a comforting historical account, a look back at a time when the United States and Serbia stood shoulder to shoulder.

“Films like this show us that working together as partners, we can achieve the impossible,” Hill said. “I hope this film reminds anyone who watches it of what we achieved when we were allies. I hope it makes them realize how much we will achieve when we are allies again, not if, but when.”