The talk aims to analyze how Italian cinema has portrayed Yugoslav partisans and how Italian invaders have been depicted in Yugoslav cinema. Through the screening of short clips taken from all the films made on this topic from 1945 to the present, we will try to understand what kind of imagery has been conveyed in the two countries, and how and why this happened. A journey through opposing ideological visions, featuring unlikely heroes, cloying clichés, and uniformed zombies.
Eric Gobetti is a freelance historian specializing in Fascism, the Second World War, the Resistance, and the history of Yugoslavia in the twentieth century. An expert in historical outreach, travel, and memory politics, he is the author of several monographs, two documentaries (Partizani and Sarajevo Rewind), a novel, a fairy tale, as well as scholarly and popular articles. Among his most recent books are And Then the Foibe? (2021), Mussolini’s Executioners (2023), both published by Laterza, and the “non-guide” Borders (2025).
