Cinema
March on the Drina
Марш на Дрину
Žika Mitrović · 1964
Synopsis
August 1914, general mobilisation. Sergeant Veca, son of a wealthy family of bankers, refuses the arms-purchasing commission where his family would like to place him and joins an artillery battery. A major foresees that Austria-Hungary will attack across the Drina and not across the Sava. The battery then sets out on a forced march, without halt or rest, towards Mount Cer, where the Austrian troops have entered the country.
Context
The film, written by Arsen Diklić and the director, was released in July 1964 by Avala Film. Made for the fiftieth anniversary of the battle, with the help of survivors, it showed the heroism of the Serbian royal army at a time when the communist authorities barely tolerated any mention of it. Its title is that of the march composed in 1914 by Stanislav Binički in honour of the dead of Cer.
Who it is for
A classic war film, in colour, lasting one hour forty-seven. It helps to know that Serbia in 1914 was emerging from two Balkan wars and facing an empire alone.
Prizes and reception
Ninth of the hundred Serbian films classified as cultural property in 2016, and the best-known film made in Yugoslavia about the First World War.