The 2011 National Film Archive Attack (also known as the Archive Shootings) was a terrorist attack carried out by the Army of Free and Independent Moraviskameja (AFIM) in the city of Karlovac.
Targeting the storage vaults of the National Film Archive, AFIM operatives shot and killed two police officers before breaking into the facility and destroying historical film reels. The group claimed the attack was a protest against the Council for Education, accusing the state of “rewriting and sanitizing” Bosken history.
The attack was a tactical success but a strategic disaster for AFIM. The destruction of rare, early Bosken-language cinema—irreplaceable cultural artifacts—drew universal condemnation, even from Bosken nationalist organizations like the BLF and the Bosken Heritage Foundation (BHF). The incident thrust AFIM back into the national news cycle after a period of dormancy and provided political ammunition for the “Law and Order” rhetoric of the rising Blue Dawn hardliners.
Background
The Archive Controversy
The National Film Archive, a subsidiary of the Federal Archive, is responsible for preserving the audio-visual history of the Republic. For decades, Bosken activists had complained that the Archive refused to release or digitize films from the Vosti era that depicted the Bosken people in a positive light, keeping them locked in the “Restricted Wing.”
In early 2011, AFIM released a manifesto titled The Lens of Lies, claiming that the Council for Education was systematically destroying these films to erase the memory of a pre-Republican Bosken identity.
The Attack
On the evening of October 9, 2011, a cell of four AFIM gunmen approached the rear entrance of the Archive building in Karlovac’s Government Quarter.
The Shootings
The entrance was guarded by two officers of the Civil Order Force, Officers Jakov T. and Mirko B. The gunmen opened fire without warning using suppressed Kres-55 rifles. Both officers were killed instantly. The murder of police personnel, in 2011, in the heart of Decelska shocked the Kresimirian public, which had largely viewed the AFIM threat as contained within history as well as within the southern borders.
The Vandalism
Upon gaining entry, the militants located “Vault 4,” which housed the “Southern Collection.” Rather than stealing the reels to “liberate” them, the operatives doused the shelving units with accelerant and set them alight. They also physically smashed several canisters containing silver-nitrate film.
The fire suppression system activated quickly, preventing the building from burning down, but the water damage and physical vandalism destroyed an estimated 150 reels. Among the lost works were the only known copies of The Harvest of Morava (1924), one of the earliest films featuring the Bosken language.
Reactions
AFIM Claim
AFIM claimed responsibility the next day. Their statement declared: “We have burned the lies of Sinj. Better that our history be ash than be twisted by the hands of the Occupation.”
Bosken Condemnation
The destruction of Bosken heritage by Bosken separatists caused outrage in District X.
- The BHF: Sybille Tauber, then-Director of the Bosken Heritage Foundation, issued a blistering statement: “You cannot save a culture by destroying its memory. These men are not patriots; they are arsonists of their own history.”
- The BLF: Senators Jannik Lehr and Isaak von Steuer condemned the “senseless violence against men and art,” distancing the political movement from the terrorists.
Government Response
Chancellor Kresimirovic IV and Blue Dawn leader Stoyan Vasilis attended the funeral of the slain officers. The attack was used to justify a massive increase in the budget for the CIA and the installation of CCTV cameras throughout the Government Quarter—a precursor to the surveillance state established by Ari Stov a few years later.