Bolnica (S01E01)
Airdate: 22 December 1974
Written by: Dragan Marković & Siniša Pavić
Directed by: Aleksandar Đorđević
Running Time: 47 minutes
The Partisan film, a genre specific to socialist Yugoslavia, is typically associated with ambitious, large-scale cinematic epics glorifying the National Liberation Struggle. However, its most iconic and enduringly popular characters—the street-smart Prle and the earnest Tihi—originated not on the silver screen but on television, as the protagonists of the 1974 series Otpisani (The Written Off) and its 1978 sequel Povratak Otpisanih (The Return of the Written Off). The first episode of this landmark series, Bolnica (“The Hospital”), serves not only as a masterful introduction to its world and characters but also as a fascinating artifact of its time, showcasing a deliberate and surprisingly successful attempt to modernise the Partisan narrative for a 1970s youth audience.
The series has its roots in the 1956 novel Zabranjeni život (Forbidden Life) by Dragan Marković, a Serbian journalist and veteran of the Communist resistance in occupied Belgrade. Drawing from his and his comrades' experiences, the novel was adapted in 1973 into a screenplay tentatively titled Petorica Otpisanih (The Five Written Off). Sold to Radiotelevizija Beograd, the script was reworked by Siniša Pavić and directed by Aleksandar Đorđević into the thirteen-part series that premiered the following year.
Bolnica efficiently establishes the premise: in June 1941, brothers Tihi (“the Silent”, Voja Brajović) and Čibi (Aleksandar Berček) return to a bombed-out Belgrade. Their home destroyed and father a prisoner of war, they find refuge on their uncle’s river barge. There, Tihi reunites with four pre-war friends from the Communist Youth: the charismatic and quick-tempered Prle (Dragan Nikolić), the jovial Mile (Vladan Holec), the reliable Zriki (Čedomir Petrović), and the pragmatic Paja Bakšiš (Miki Manojlović). Their initial elation at news of Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union—seen as a harbinger of rapid German defeat—is brutally quashed by the reality of occupation when a casual street encounter with a Volksdeutsche woman leads to Prle being slapped by a German patrol, a humiliation he vows to avenge.
The plot proper is set in motion when Party organiser Skale (Slobodan Aligrudić) informs his subordinate Milan (Rade Marković) that a high-ranking female Partisan, who has just given birth, has been arrested by the Gestapo and is held in a hospital under guard. Milan is tasked with organising her rescue and recruits the group of youths. Their first hurdle is arming themselves, achieved through a tense, night-time ambush on a German patrol. The action is chaotic and grounded; Paja is shot in the buttocks, but they kill three soldiers and secure a pistol and two submachine guns. Meanwhile, the narrative cross-cuts to the hospital, where the prisoner is guarded by collaborationist gendarmes and the Special Police, whose chief Nikola (Dušan Perković) and deputy Krsta (Vasa Pantelić) are summoned to Gestapo headquarters. There, Colonel Müller (Robert Ulrich) and his deputy, Major Krieger (Stevo Žigon), demand the prisoner be handed over, suspecting the attending doctor, Dr. Borić (Voja Mirić), of stalling. When agents arrive to interrogate him, Borić commits suicide by jumping from a window. The rescue attempt proceeds with Milan and Tihi bluffing their way into the hospital as Special Police agents, overpowering the guard, and escaping with the woman and her newborn in a truck driven by Paja’s cousin Cane Kurbla (Ivan Bekjarev). A pursuing shootout with Special Police agents claims the life of the jovial jockey Simke (Dragan Maksimović), who sacrifices himself to buy time. The episode concludes with Major Krieger castigating Nikola for the failure. When Nikola insists all resistance members will be listed, Krieger delivers the series’ defining line: “I don’t want them on the list. I want them written off.”
What is immediately striking about Bolnica is its modernity, particularly compared to the more solemn, monumental Partisan films of the preceding decades. The sole anachronistic element is its black-and-white cinematography, a choice driven partly by budget and partly by the fact that colour television was still a novelty in mid-1970s Yugoslavia. This technical limitation did not hinder its impact; Bolnica and the following episode Garaža were later edited into a colour theatrical film. The sequel series, Povratak Otpisanih, would be filmed in colour. The episode’s contemporary feel is fundamentally anchored in its music. The main theme, composed by jazz musician Milivoje Marković, is a funky, driving piece more evocative of 1970s blaxploitation or crime films than a World War II drama. This score is used strategically, accentuating action and suspense sequences, and immediately signals a departure from traditional, orchestral partisan marches.
This modernising approach was a conscious effort by the authorities and creators to make the foundational myth of Communist Yugoslavia more palatable and “hip” to the country’s younger generation. Consequently, Bolnica contains remarkably little overt propaganda or direct references to Communist ideology. The youths are motivated less by political doctrine than by a sense of camaraderie, rebellion against foreign oppression, and personal honour (as seen in Prle’s need to redeem his slapped face). Their costumes, hairstyles, and attitudes consciously mirror the rebellious, anti-establishment youth culture of the 1970s, transforming them into relatable protagonists for a contemporary audience. The episode establishes its core character dynamics with economic precision. Tihi, presumably from a middle-class background, is positioned as the serious, cautious “straight man.” In contrast, Prle, from the “wrong side of the tracks” with a history of petty crime, provides much of the episode’s humour and impulsive energy. This contrast between the two would form the emotional backbone of the entire series.
The antagonists are given equal care. Major Krieger (Stevo Žigon) is established as a formidable, intelligent foe. The casting is rich with irony, as Žigon was in reality a member of the Communist resistance in occupied Ljubljana and a Dachau concentration camp survivor, an experience he later cited as inspiration for his portrayals of Nazis. The episode also introduces darker historical context through Tihi’s girlfriend Nina (Jelena Čvorović), who confesses she is Jewish and lives in terror, having seen Jews forced to wear the yellow star on Belgrade’s streets. This subplot, though brief, integrates the Holocaust into the narrative in a personal, affecting way.
The most intriguing and historically complex aspect of Bolnica is its relationship to real events. The hospital raid is a composite of two notable resistance actions. The primary inspiration is the audacious July 29, 1941, liberation of Aleksandar Ranković, a member of the Politbureau of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, from a Belgrade hospital where he was held by the Gestapo. This operation, during which a gendarme and a German soldier were killed, was among the most spectacular Partisan actions of the early occupation. However, by the 1970s, Ranković had become a non-person. After rising to become one of Yugoslavia’s most powerful figures and head of the dreaded UDBA secret police, he fell out with Tito and was purged in 1966. His legacy was politically toxic. Therefore, the series’ writers transformed the rescued prisoner into a woman, a composite also drawing from the January 1942 rescue of Ivanka Muačević-Nikoliš. This alteration is a stark illustration of how the series, while grounded in historical struggle, was also subject to the shifting tides of Yugoslav political memory, sanitising its narrative to align with contemporary political orthodoxy.
Bolnica is as a remarkably effective series pilot and a culturally significant piece of television. It successfully rebranded the Partisan genre for a new generation, swapping mythic grande. It laid the foundation for a series that would achieve cult status across Yugoslavia, its reruns attracting millions of viewers, and proved that the small screen could create war-time heroes as compelling, if not more so, than any big-budget film.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
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