The Representation of Childhood in Children’s Partisan Films

Abstract

The title of the paper simultaneously poses the central research question: in what ways can we speak of a children’s partisan film? This study seeks to examine, within an appropriate theoretical-analytical framework, the boundaries and possibilities of applying the concept of “children’s
film” to the corpus of Yugoslav partisan feature films in which children appear as protagonists. The first section outlines the fundamental theoretical foundations of children’s film, both in the domestic context — primarily through the definition provided in the Film Encyclopedia (1986),
edited by Ante Peterlić — and through contemporary international approaches, with particular reference to the works of Noel Brown (2017) and André Nebe (2023). Building on these theoretical premises, the paper analyzes selected case studies: Eagles Fly Early (1966), Mirko and Slavko
(1973), Captain Mikula the Young (1974), Wintering in Jakobsfeld (1975), The Farm in the Small Marsh (1976), and Boško Buha (1978). The analysis focuses on the application of Brown’s constitutive elements of children’s film — community, coming-of-age and childhood narrative, pedagogical
function, absence of explicitly forbidden content, and a positively resolved ending — alongside an additional consideration of focalization, namely, the child’s point of view. The conclusion argues that these films are more accurately categorized as “films of childhood” rather than
children’s films in the strict sense. Although they depict specific processes of children’s growing up, these films are not necessarily intended for child audiences but rather operate within an ideological discourse — primarily through the construction of Yugoslav national and heroic identity, in line with the contemporary models of culture and memory politics.