NIGHTS AND DAYS



Director: Pjer Majhrovski

Screenwriter: Meša Selimović

Cinematografpher: Stevo Landup

Scenography: Vladimir Tadej

Costume Designer: Helena Volfrat-Kojović

Music: Zora Branković

Editor: Zora Branković

Cast: Marija Kohn, Vlastimir Đuza Stojiljković, Milan Srdoč, Boris Buzančić, Antun Vrdoljak, Branko Tatić

Production:

Bosna film

Synopsis:

The commander of a partisan detachment and a few of his soldiers are captured by German soldiers during a German offensive on their area of operations. A group of partisan soldiers put on German uniforms, trick the enemy and succeed in freeing their comrades, with the exception of the commander. The commander had been killed in captivity. While captured partisans were being interrogated by the enemy soldiers, one of them, Zira, made the mistake of revealing the captain’s nom de guerre and as the result the captain was executed. The freed partisans and their saviors rejoin their detachment just as the partisan HQ orders its members to withdraw into a besieged city to sit out the enemy offensive. Zira is tortured by guilt over the death of commander Nino who was also his brother in law. He does not know how to tell his sister Vera about the death of her husband. He wonders how to look Vera in the eye and tell her the truth. Besides, although he is a good fighter, the experience of being captured scared him and he is afraid to return to the city. Being in the besieged city, helpless and with your hands tied is the same as being in prison, he argues. Therefore, Zira abandons his detachment with a plan to find and join another partisan unit. However, he does not find a way out of the area so he sneaks back into the besieged city. He is afraid to go home and decides to seek shelter at a friend’s house convinced that he will be safe there. After all, he was staying with that friend when he decided to leave the city and join the resistance. But the friend (whose brother had been killed fighting against the partisans) reports him to the police after hearing that the members of the partisan battalion had slipped back into the city. German soldiers and police carry out a big raid and arrest and imprison over 4,000 people, but nobody, including Zira, is prepared to tell the Germans who is in the resistance. Zira keeps the secret as German soldiers lead him through the crowd. He dies without saying a word.