The Third Half

Plot

The Third Half depicts the history of 7,148 Jews from ex-Yugoslavian district Vardar Banovina who were deported to the gas chambers of Treblinka by the Bulgarian administrative and military authorities, who were cooperating with the Nazi regime. In 1941, a young Eastern Orthodox man, Kosta, and a wealthy young Jewish woman, Rebecca, fall in love, despite her father's effort to keep them apart. With the war raging around their borders, the Macedonians remain cocooned in their world of patriotic pleasures, primarily concerned about getting the beleaguered Macedonia Football Club on a winning streak. Their manager hires the legendary German-Jewish coach Rudolph Spitz to turn them into champions. But when the Nazi occupation begins and they start deporting Jews, Kosta and his teammates realize that the carefree days of their youth are over. As the Nazis try to sabotage the outcome of the championship game, and Spitz's life is threatened, Kosta and his teammates rise to the challenge to protect their coach, with all of Macedonia cheering them on.

Cast

Production

The film was directed by Darko Mitrevski and supported by the Macedonian Film Fund, the Holocaust Fund of the Jews from Macedonia, The Jewish Community of Macedonia and the Czech State Fund. It was declared a film of a national interest by the Macedonian Government. The film was shot in Skopje, Bitola and Ohrid. Filming took place between September 10 and October 27, 2011.

Reception

The film was selected as the Macedonian entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards, but it did not make the final cut for nomination.

Controversy

Evgeni Kirilov, Andrey Kovatchev and Stanimir Ilchev—Bulgarian members of the European Parliament—expressed outrage over the film and called upon European Commissioner for Enlargement Štefan Füle to reprove the Republic of Macedonia over the film. They claimed the film was an "attempt to manipulate Balkan history" and "spread hate" on the part of the Republic of Macedonia against its neighbours. The director of the film denied the accusations; he and the film crew described the objections to the film as an example of Holocaust denial.

In late November 2011, the Macedonian media alleged that European MP Doris Pack dismissed the Bulgarian politicians' criticism of the film. Subsequently, in an extraordinary meeting of the EU Committee on Foreign Affairs, which was attended by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Macedonia, Doris Pack, denied this allegation.