THE PARTISAN NECROPOLIS is the new film by Chris Leslie, Scottish journalist, director, documentarian, and longtime guest of the BH Film program, which our audience will be able to watch today at 3 PM.
The necropolis in question is the Partisan Memorial Cemetery in Mostar, a masterpiece of Yugoslav architect Bogdan Bogdanović, built exactly sixty years ago. Within its monumental design, the cemetery holds an ossuary with the remains of the fighters of the renowned Mostar Battalion, who gave their lives in the struggle against the fascist occupier and its local collaborators during World War II. The cemetery’s most striking feature is seven hundred stone flowers—memorial plaques bearing the names of all the fallen Mostar partisans.
For the past thirty years, from the war of the 1990s until today, these plaques and the cemetery itself have been a constant target of neo-Nazi vandals. The most devastating destruction took place on June 22, 2022, when, in a single night, all seven hundred stone plaques were smashed. The memorial cemetery was covered with Nazi symbols—mostly swastikas—as well as the insignia of the fascist Independent State of Croatia. The perpetrators do not hide their ideology, but the authorities and police appear to make little effort to uncover their identities—to this day, no one has been charged for this incomprehensible act of vandalism.
Once a symbol of unity and reconciliation, the Neretva River now divides Mostar into two banks that persistently try to present themselves as ethnically different and irreconcilable. The Old Bridge, the city’s greatest symbol—destroyed by representatives of the very same ideology that now leaves its mark on the ruined cemetery—was rebuilt after the war. The partisan necropolis, however, remains forgotten by Mostar’s citizens and despised by its nationalists.
Yet, a small group of men and women strives to overcome fear and stand up for the necropolis. Some of them are relatives and comrades of the fallen partisans, wishing to lay flowers on the desecrated memorials. Some are Mostar’s historians and archaeologists who understand that destroying the past cannot lead to a better future. Others are young artists who find inspiration in the cemetery and use their work to raise their voices against the resurgence of fascism.
In just over an hour, Leslie manages to penetrate the grave problem of a city that we, Bosnians and Herzegovinians, rarely dare—or wish—to talk about. He does not shy away from examining the conflict from multiple perspectives, posing questions and drawing answers even from those who oppose the cemetery and whose ideology fuels the young vandals smashing the plaques of their fellow citizens under cover of night. Above all, this documentary revives the memory of Huso, Hasnija, Himzo, Salko, and many others—seven hundred in total—who gave their lives for the freedom of a city now once again imprisoned, this time by its own divisions.
Bojana Vidosavljević
