Preboj

The time is March 1945, with the Wehrmacht and the SS on the run, trying to retreat to Third Reich territory to face the final onslaught of the Red Army that will end in total German defeat and surrender in May 1945. Their escape route West is subject to attacks by Slovenian partisans and the SS Division Galicia is already on its way from Hungary to deal with them. In the dead of a cold winter, a group of about 500 partisans under the command of 22 year old Franc Sever (Franta) retreat to the slopes of the Menina mountain to avoid the German frontal onslaught. At intervals im the movie we see the real Franta (96 years old in 2019) writing his war memoirs on which this movie is based. At the end, men and women survivors of the Menina action add their views.

I liked this movie. The budget was obviously limited and there are some rough edges in acting and direction, but it pays due homage to the Yugoslavian partisans that carried out an heroic fight against Nazism with scarce or no resources. And, it is also timely in view of disquieting revisionist notions taking hold in Europe. The Galicia Division was guilty of numerous atrocities, praised by Himmler and declared a criminal organization at the Nurenberg Trials. It was composed of ethnic Ukrainians and on April 28 2021 there was a parade in Kyiv celebrating the Division (there were various such demonstrations in Lviv and other cities too). The march was approved by city authorities and there was support from bystanders but, to his credit, President Zelensky condemned it.

Before i started to watch this movie, i didnt have much expectations on this "another" partisan movie, as youngster i watched them many, from Ex-Yugoslavia movie studios. Some of them really great, some of them even now displayed in China on national TV.

Ok, lets go back to this movie. It is not high budget movie, there are no special effects, FX, DX, whatever sound systems, but movie is good, really good and true story.

One of the main battles before the Nazis capitulated in this region. Also acters were good. Passionate, i think they really went into the shoes of real persons.

Not to go much deeper, if you are interested to see some very good historical movie which took place in territory of Slovenia, i highly recommend.

P. S. Hardly waiting that someone will made a movie from "Drazgose battle".

Showing one of the last big battles in Slovenia between the Nazis and the local partisans during WW2. Considering the extremely low budget (cca. 40.000 $) the movie is surprisingly good.

Didn't care for this because nothing was explained. I had no idea what this battle was about. The director should have used captions to set it up. Plus, terrible acting snd direction. Boring scenes, slow lingering camera shots. No plot, no character development. I'm sure in hindsight that this was an important battle, so it deserved better storytelling. Boring. Pass!

Movies can have different versions - so I was a bit surprised when I read something about two hours I won't get back. The movie is only 90 minutes long, which is 1.5 hours, for anyone who is counting. On the other hand, if you are not having a good time (no pun intended), than time may seem way slower. As in actual time and time experienced differ.

Which also is quite true about the actual people and what they went through. It's not that we didn't know certain things, but war is always crazy ... and seeing "heroics" in the face of danger (and death) is something that we either cherish to watch (and applaud those involved) or be annoyed by it I reckon.

Well shot and well acted, but not a masterpiece by a long shot. Still more than decent.