Public number: Coconut travel diary
Walk sixty countries and see the world in depth
"The air was trembling, as if the sky were burning."
"Yeah, the storm is coming."
"Look at the city, he's Walter!"
In the 1970s, when material entertainment was scarce, the classic World War II film "Walter Defends Sarajevo" brought Chinese a strong spiritual shock. This is a generation's favorite foreign film when they were young, and maybe not one of them!
I'm ashamed to say that as a post-90s, if I hadn't come to Bosnia and Herzegovina, I would never have known about this movie. It wasn't until before my trip to the Balkans that I flipped through the web to make up for my lessons.
It is a Yugoslav story war film, released in Hungary in 1972. In 1973, the Beijing Film Studio produced the translation film Walter Defends Sarajevo. The film tells the story of the guerrilla leader Walter during World War II, who successfully foiled the enemy's plot with many heroic guerrillas after letting the spies who broke in the interior appear in their original form.
The film combines elements of gunfights, martial arts, espionage, and detective films, and the storyline is twisty and fascinating. The picture is very visually impactful, gripping and moving. The real and fake Walter's hand-to-hand combat, the gunfight in the mosque, the fight on the roof of the train, the chase between cars and motorcycles, the explosion of the arms train, the drop of bags in the operating room, and the beautiful female guerrilla Azra being shot and killed under the enemy's searchlights, all left a deep impression on everyone.
The film was very well received in China, and many of the lines even became familiar words at that time. For example, the code: "The air is trembling, as if the sky is burning." "Yeah, the storm is coming." （"Vazduhtrepti, kao da nebo gori." "Sprema se oluja..."）。。。 The protagonist Walter's hunting suit and Walter fist in the film are even more captivating to a small youth! The current post-90s and post-00s probably don't know that this film has become the screen memory of their parents' generation.
Sarajevo is a household name in the country because of this film. In fact, she has always been a bright pearl in the Balkans. The first tram in Europe to operate is not in London, not in Paris, it is in Sarajevo! The world's first mosque with electrical lighting was not in Istanbul, but also in Sarajevo! But Sarajevo's beauty doesn't stop there. It is a city full of exotic features, due to the complex historical and cultural composition, it is a fusion of three major ethnic groups, with 4 religious sites, and a variety of buildings of different periods and styles. We can see mosques, Catholic churches, Orthodox churches and even synagogues at the same time within 200 meters; we can also see Ottoman Turkish architecture and Austro-Hungarian neoclassical architecture at both ends of the street.
What is even more rare is that after so many years, although it has been baptized by war, the layout of the city has not changed much, and we can still find scenes in the film in the streets and alleys. This time, let's travel through the city with the shots from the movie "Walter Defends Sarajevo".
Bashkharhia Baščaršija
Sarajevo's old town is built around Baskaya. Sarajevo was only a small settlement in the Middle Ages, and after the Turks occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina, they saw the relatively flat area on both sides of the river valley and built a new city of Sarajevo here. The original center of the city was this Baskaya.
Baskaya was built in 1462 and still retains its appearance 500 years ago. Now it is the pedestrian street of the old town, and it is also the place where tourists in Sarajevo gather the most, and it is full of tourists during the day. Lined with old Ottoman buildings, a few pigeons flying in the twilight, and the streets lined with Arabic shisha, all of this seems to transport us back to the Ottoman era hundreds of years ago.
The old town streets are paved with stones, alleys, shops and handicraft workshops, and a variety of Turkish-style metal crafts, ceramics, jewelry, ornaments and gemstones are bought and sold. While strolling through the famous Coppersmith Street, we accidentally found the son of the old blacksmith in the movie here! All the Chinese who passed by rushed into the store to take a photo with the owner and tell their memories of youth!
Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque
The Gezi Huseret Berg Mosque in the heart of Sarajevo's Old Town. It was built under the auspices of GaziHusrev Bey, then the Ottoman Governor-General in Bosnia, and was built in 1531, and during the Bosnian War, the mosque that served as a Bosnian elephant trunk was targeted and suffered great damage. Restoration work began on the mosque in 1996, after the end of the war. It is now the largest and most important historical building and islamic religious center in the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the mausoleum of the temple, many great figures in Bosnian history are buried here.
In the movie, the old guerrilla watchmaker, in order to punish the "fake Walter", replaces the "Walter" to the mosque joint, and is killed in the courtyard of the Chuzhen Temple. Walter rushed to the mosque, and through the iron fence, saw the body of the watchmaker lying on the ground..... These footage are taken from the Gezi Husere Berg Mosque.
Clock Tower Sahat-Kula
The bell tower, built in 1667, is right next to the Gezi Huseret Berg Mosque, the "minaret" of the mosque. The big clock is produced in Italy and is the only public clock in the city. It wasn't until 2012 that the original mechanism was replaced by electrons.
In the movie, after sniping at the Germans above the bell tower, Walter uses a thick rope to descend from the bell tower. This thrilling scene is still fresh in many people's minds, and it was taken from this bell tower.
Yellow Castle Yellow Fortress
The Yellow Castle was formerly a fortification during the Ottoman Empire, built in an irregular octagon from rough stone. It was repaired twice in 1883 and 1903. If you want to find a camera position to take a bird's-eye view of the city, this is undoubtedly the best place, and many people will come to watch the sunset. If you stop here until after sunset, you will hear Muslim prayers, which is also a very unique experience, when Muslim prayers ring out over Sarajevo through the clouds, so quiet and calm, this is also one of the best moments in Sarajevo.
However, the white tombstones below the viewing platform are shocking. The cemetery dates back to the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the 15th century, and later buried a large number of Muslims who died in the war after the Civil War in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The first president of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Aria-Izetbegović, is also buried here.
The classic scene at the end of the film: German officer says to his successor: Sehen Sie diese Stadt? Das ist Walter! ）。 It is on this hillside that the Germans overlook the heroic city of Sarajevo.
Walter statue Spomenik Valteru
On the greenery of the Skenderija Bridge, a bust of Walter, a white marble sculpture stands.
The film's protagonist, Vladimir Perić Valter, was killed in the last battle for the freedom of the city on the night of April 5, 1945. To this day, many fans will go to the hero to lay a garland
Walter's image was so successful, of course, it was not made up out of thin air. Walter Peric did have such a man in history. During World War II, the 26-year-old Peric was the leader of the Sarajevo underground. He was a member of the Yugoslav Communist Party and served as a battalion commander in the partisans during the war. Peric is not only brave, but also extremely calm and witty, and he has achieved great success in leading the underground organization. However, Peric did not survive the war. On April 5, 1945, Peric was heroically killed (forced to shell) in the battle to liberate Sarajevo.
Old Town Hall Vijećnica
Not far from these attractions, a yellow-brown striped building by the river stands out. Originally built during the Austro-Hungarian empire, the town hall was converted into a national library during World War I, but during the Bosnia and Herzegovina War, a cultural disaster occurred here. On the night of August 25, 1992, the town hall was set on fire by Serbs, resulting in the burning of more than 90 per cent of the library's collections. It was not until reconstruction began after the war with the assistance of the European Union that it reopened to the public on May 9, 2014.
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Floc
In fact, about this popular classic war movie, there is an unknown tragedy:
The director of this film, Kelvavac, is the most famous director in Yugoslavia, he not only filmed "Walter Defends Sarajevo", you must be familiar with the classic film "Ah Friends Goodbye", "Bridge", he also planned it.
In the 1992 Civil War in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which the three major ethnic groups fought, the Serb army surrounded Sarajevo, which was controlled by the Muslims, and carried out a four-year siege and attack. Kelvavac was a Muslim who lived in Sarajevo at the time. During this siege, Kelvavac, who was 66 years old in 1992, was starved to death!
The death of Kelvavac can be said to be a great irony. Sarajevo was not destroyed by the Germans, but almost by its own!!
In the next issue, it will be tragic for everyone.