The Heroes of Halyard

Feature film and TV series (6 episodes)
War drama
Premiere 2023/24

Writer and Director: Radoš Bajić
Cowriters: Dušan Kovačević and Strahinja Madžarević
Director of photography: Predrag Jočić S.A.S.
Editor: Stevan Marić
Production designer: Jelena Mirković
Costume designer: Boris Čakširan
Makeup artist: Mirjana Stevović
Music composers: Bilja Krstić and Dragomir Miki Stanojević
Sound recordist: Vladica Budić
Sound design: Igor Perović
CGI: Boriša Simović
Historical consultant: Dr Miloš Timotijević
Military consultant: General Dragan Katanić
Assistant director: Damir Romanov, Ivan Zacero, Marko Stevović and Mladen Šević
Line producer: Snežana Mileusnić
Production coordinator: Jelena Stojanović
Executive producers: Nedeljko Bajić, Jelena Bajić Jočić, Predrag Jočić

• Synopsis

  At the heart of the film and TV series “The Heroes of Halyard” is a war drama, a story inspired by the largest single rescue mission of downed Allied airmen behind enemy lines in aviation history of all time, codenamed “The Halyard Mission”. This action took place in the summer of 1944. It was led by the Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland that was headed by General Dragoljub “Draža” Mihailović. It was at great cost and sacrifice that the Serbian people saved 508 American and other Allied countries’ airmen from certain death, sending them off to safety from the improvised airfield in the Serbian village of Pranjani, at the foot of Mt Suvobor.

  The story of the Halyard Mission is about the quintessential charity, lofty ideals, and patriotism. It is a saga of the tragedy of a time, of heroism and hopelessness, family, love and taking the wrong path, the thirst for freedom, divisions and schisms - about the bigwig heavyweights, the power players, deliberately stepping in and imposing a type of future on the Serbian people, and as a consequence, they ended up having no future at all.

  Executive producer of the project is Contrast Studios, in cooperation with Telekom Serbia and Serbian Broadcasting Corporation RTS, sustained by Serbian Film Center and the Government of AP of Vojvodina. The project is supported by companies “Dunav osiguranje” and “Banka Poštanska štedionica“ and hosted by Gornji Milanovac Municipality.

  The first part of the project was filmed in 2021 at the outskirts of Belgrade, Kragujevac, Mt Rudnik, as well as the military airfields Batajnica and Kovin. It is continued in 2022 when the essential scenes of this war saga will be shot, mainly in western Serbia, at Ravna gora Mt, villages Pranjani, Leušići, Brajići, Družetići where the drama actually took place almost eight decades ago.

  Authors and the numerous crew of “The Heroes of Halyard” will revive the Second World War atmosphere in Serbia in this unique story of humanity, kindness, nobility and patriotism, but also about betrayal and fratricide.

CAST
The cast of “The Heroes of Halyard” consists of hundreds of Serbian and foreign actors, such as: Petar Božović, Žarko Laušević, Nela Mihailović, Nikola Rakočević, Vučić Perović, Milan Vasić, Aleksandar Đurica, Isidora Minić, Jovo Maksić, Ivan Vučković, Nenad Heraković, Radoje Čupić, Slobodan Ninković, Nedeljko Bajić, Vanja Ejdus, Aleksandar Stojković, Branka Šelić, Branko Janković… some young, talented actors: Nina Nešković, Teodora Dragičević, Čubrilo Čupić, Marko Radojević, Mihailo Perišić, Ognjen Nikola Radulović, Nemanja Rafailović… Along with Serbian actors, numerous foreign artists joined the cast of “The Heroes of Halyard”: Stephen Moore, Scott Alexander Young, Michael Stokey, Adam Davenport, Paul Cless, Nikola Kent, Carl Wharton, Paul Murray, Harry Nathanial Epply, Alex Papke, Kevin Clarke, et al.
This year, several famous Serbian actors became a part of the project, such as: Ljiljana Blagojević, Radovan Vujović, Nebojša Ljubišić, Branislav Lečić, Voja Brajović, Nebojša Dugalić, Đorđe Marković, Dubravko Jovanović, Nebojša Kundačina, and the author of the project himself, Radoš Bajić, in one of the roles.

The movie premiere is planned to be in the fall of 2023, while showing of the TV series will follow on the programs of Radio Television Serbia and channel SUPERSTAR (Telekom Srbija).