New fascisms are looking for new partisans

In the race for commemorative phrases, wreath-laying and protocol-based celebration of the heroic past, we have forgotten the key truth: anti-fascism is not a monument in a park, but an everyday practice. On the 85th anniversary of the July 13th Uprising, while historical revisionism is being wrapped in the wrappers of democratic changes, and the old ghosts of intolerance are walking around in new, digital costumes and becoming increasingly extreme, culture must not be a silent observer. Where are the limits of resistance today, why salon art is losing the battle with populism and why in 2026 we must learn again what it is like to be a partisan, a director and a professor tell Vijesti Nikola Vukcevic, professor of literature Bozena Jelušić both journalist and media analyst Dusko Vukovic.

The myth of the collective and the lonely cut of the individual

History, when viewed from a distance of eight and a half decades, tends to ossify into myth. Collective history offers comfort because it does not require personal risk from the individual; it offers us ready-made myths and a pat on the back in the crowd. However, the true historical vertical of this space was not forged in mass events, but in the lonely, very courageous decisions of an individual, reminds director Nikola Vukčević. His film “Obraz” opens precisely this deeply personal, universal question: “What would I do in Nur Doka’s place?” It is a call to philanthropy that sharply and unequivocally separates humanity from the challenges of war.

"Every film about the past actually speaks about our present. Today, both in the region and globally, we are once again witnessing tensions and rhetoric that bring division and destroy social empathy. In the main character, Nuredin Doka, I saw a man trying to reconcile his own being with what harsh circumstances impose on him. His choice - to protect someone else's child of another religion and nation at the cost of his own family's life - raises a question that transcends all time: how much is a person willing to risk in order to preserve their moral peace? Today, the willingness to stand up for the protection of another was lost the moment we allowed political calculations and social networks to dull our empathy, turning us into observers of other people's suffering. It seems to me that today we celebrate July 13 more easily than we are ready to apply its values ​​in our own everyday lives," Vukčević points out.

While he maps intimate drama as a basis for resistance through cinematography, the question arises as to where these retrograde processes are most clearly articulated in the everyday Montenegrin and regional context. Hannah Arendt warned that totalitarian patterns begin when people stop seeing themselves as individuals and start seeing themselves exclusively as members of categories. Building on this thought, the professor Bozena Jelušić reminds us that the formal victory over historical fascism Hitler i Mussolini did not mean its final end. On the contrary, today we are witnessing what was Umberto Eco called "eternal fascism" and its various transformations.

"Transformed fascism should be recognized in phenomena and occurrences such as the production of enemies, the weakening of democratic institutions, the formalism of elections, the cult of the leader, the abuse of emotions, the normalization of the exclusion of entire social groups, the use of technology and propaganda in order to relativize the truth... So, if we recognize such phenomena in the social life of Montenegro, it means that we have also noticed a 'fascist uniform'. And the 'new partisans' would first have to recognize similar tendencies in themselves and free themselves from them as quickly and thoroughly as possible, if they are true fighters against neo-fascism," warns Jelušić.

This “fascist uniform” in the contemporary Montenegrin context, however, does not always come from above, but from the very base of the social fabric. Journalist and media analyst Dusko Vukovic locates the source of the problem in a profound change in social character and the metastasis of selfishness that lies behind collective identities.

"Where a petty bourgeois appears instead of a citizen, that is, someone who views everything that is considered a common good and public interest primarily through the prism of selfishness, is the birthplace of an ideology and practice that smacks of fascism, even when that ideology and practice do not at first glance resemble the original fascism. I see contemporary Montenegrin society as a petty bourgeois society, and the local petty bourgeois as someone who clumsily camouflages their nature with national costumes. That is, unfortunately, our current mainstream," Vuković states.

The trap of salon politics and “identity self-service”

Literature and art have historically been the first line of defense against single-mindedness, but the contemporary moment brings paradoxical twists. Professor Jelušić notes that, contrary to expectations, the one-party socialist regime resulted in much greater and more significant artistic freedoms, literary deconstruction, and criticism than occurred after the introduction of multi-partyism.

"It is enough to recall the work Mihailo Lalic, otherwise an author who is indicatively neglected in our region. Lalić's novels are a great history textbook of Montenegro and at the same time a metaphor for the world. He was, one could say, a 'new partisan', who recognized in victory the germs of future defeat. Otherwise, he chose the life of a professional writer, always on the 'edge of the sword', and not a politician. He could easily have been a 'poet on the presidential ship', as he Rain sang. I'm afraid that there are always many more of these others, and some of the winners of awards that bear the name of the Thirteenth of July clearly confirm this," Jelušić reminds.

This kind of intellectual conformism has spilled over into the arena where the crucial battle for the future is being fought - into classrooms and public spaces. Instead of critical confrontation, the past has become what Jelušić calls an “identity supermarket” from which each government takes what suits it and ignores what does not suit it.

"In the entire region, and even in the world, the pendulum is largely moving in the opposite, retrograde direction, towards ethnic and religious divisions 'enriched' by hostility towards migrants, foreigners, minorities, feminism, globalists, NGOs... In this region in particular, we live in a society in which democratic institutions are very weak, the independence of the judiciary, media, universities, regulatory bodies is undermined... This is why the truth is relativized and the 'boiled frog' phenomenon occurs, when we little by little give up the right to insist on facts. That is why 'walking' monuments to convicted war criminals and frescoes of the same people in places of worship are possible," warns Jelušić.

The economic background of this historical and moral regression is completely exposed. Vuković explains that the gap between the institutional, ceremonial celebration of July 13th and the real situation on the ground is not accidental, but structural in nature.

"Just as the plunder of social property was a radical break with Yugoslav socialist practice, so too is domestic revisionism a natural ideological companion to that historical turning point. If you deal with socialism, then you must also deal with the partisans. This revisionism is being helped by the offensive of the right across what we call Western civilization. In our transitional campaign against the baked goods of capitalism, we destroyed the foundations of social cohesion created in socialism, and now the pieces and fragments of that ruin are competing for the favor of political leaders, the local plundering bourgeoisie, and would gouge each other's eyes out under the pretext of the necessity of competition and the legality of the market. The media is part of that, and their role is then naturally not in the function of social cohesion, tolerance, and solidarity, but in the function of confrontation at various levels," explains Vuković.

Algorithmic bubbles and the passivity of digital abundance

"This media confrontation and the relativization of truth today have new, technological channels of distribution. Contemporary darkness masquerades as progress. While the enemy was clearly recognized in 1941, new fascisms are cutting the fabric of society through digital space and algorithms," warns Vukčević:

"Today, wars are first experienced in the digital space, through the subtle, algorithmic or bot-like removal of humanity from those who think differently. When you create digital bubbles in which the other is reduced to a target, you are actually preparing the ground for real dehumanization. In such an environment, there must be no ambiguous moral messages in the film when honor and life are at stake."

The paradox of the digital age is that technology, under the guise of connectivity and the availability of free speech, actually breeds a deep social inertia. When asked what is today the equivalent of an illegal partisan printing press and whether alternative channels can carry the burden of resistance, Duško Vuković gives a sober and cautionary diagnosis:

"Critical thought will always find a form and a channel through which to express itself, but I fear that such a pregabalism does not exist in Montenegro to an extent that would correspond to the challenges of the current historical moment. Technology is passivating, of course, and in that sense our ancestors were at an advantage. They had to act. I cannot imagine the People's Front today as a well-thought-out and organized defense against the fascism of society, both in the heart of Europe and on its southeastern periphery."

What does it mean to be a partisan in 2026?

The July 13th Uprising was a unique civilizational, emancipatory and ethical step forward for a traditionally rigid and poor environment. However, the mythologizing of that date often obscures its essence. Humanity and heroism, Jelušić reminds us, referring to Marko Miljanov, have always been the exception, not the rule. We therefore always have the same task before us: the fight against “eternal fascism” and its patterns in the most diverse combinations.

What then, in the contemporary context, is a supreme, individual “partisan act”?

For Nikola Vukčević, it is primarily a refusal to be part of a lynch mob and the preservation of individual humanity:

"Today's 'new partisans' do not need to carry guns, but rather a critical awareness, civic courage and an immune system resistant to cheap hatred; being a partisan today means refusing to be part of a digital lynching, preserving your inner moral compass in the general noise of the world and recognizing a human being in the one the system tries to present to you as an enemy."

For Božena Jelušić, this resistance entails the deconstruction of the mechanisms by which political elites reduce us to the masses and manage our fears:

“Metaphorically speaking, a ‘partisan act’ could be the ability to resist the politics of emotions that reduce us to a collective. It would also be the skill to analyze propaganda, the mythologizing of the past, and the production of internal enemies. Certainly a ‘partisan act’ would be to not agree to the normalization of the exclusion of others and those who are different. And finally, we must understand the technology that shapes our lives, especially the destructive power of algorithms and the fragile reason of individuals in echo chambers where any government can serve us neo-fascist ‘delicacies’.”

The market and daily politics will always seek out fast, flammable goods and cheap national myths because they offer collective catharsis without any personal questioning. But to remain immune to these pressures, as Vukčević concludes, means to understand that there are far fewer things that divide us than political elites claim, that good people of all faiths are the same, while fascists everywhere are cowards.

​The internal echo of historical pressure

Speaking about working on the film "Obraz", this year's winner of the Thirteenth of July Award, Nikola Vukčević, explains that history is not taken as a mere topic, but as a pressure on an individual and their family - a pressure that shapes extreme circumstances and puts character to the greatest trials.

“In search of an authorial key that opens a dialogue with the contemporary moment, the film crew made a conscious departure from traditional lore: in this version of the story, no one has the right to sacrifice another person but themselves, thus emphasizing the motifs of personal responsibility and individual humanity. Through months of rehearsals with actors from across the region, the goal was to expose a living man, a father of a family who struggles with his own fear and doubt in order to save someone else's child.

"The characters here are not intended as mirrors or representatives of any ideological groups, but as individuals caught in the nets of 'higher interests' who, despite everything, strive to preserve their own ethical values. Precisely because of this universal dimension, the question of a direct connection between Nur's principles, the partisan movement of that era, and the present-day space from which the story comes has been raised at foreign festivals. This is confirmation that a local ethical vertical has the power to communicate globally, reminding us that film art can do more to defend against oblivion than any dry historical lesson," says Vukčević.