[1] Bulajić spent the majority of his life working in Croatia and is primarily known for directing World War II-themed movies from the Partisan film genre.

[5] Bulajić and his two older brothers were all wounded in battle and at one point his entire family was imprisoned in an Italian fascist concentration camp.

[6] In a 2015 interview for a Chinese news website, Bulajić shared a story of how his "older brother was at the railway station in Montenegro when the allies of Italy-fascism switched trains to the Neretva River.

This is where Bulajić found his passion for film which led him to pursue studies at the Italian Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia under the tutelage of Cesare Zavattini.

It was during his time in Rome that Veljko befriended Sophia Loren and Carlo Ponti, both of whom would visit him many years later for holidays in both Croatia and Montenegro.

The film was a complex drama dealing with the interactions among people who were forcefully leaving their ancestral homes to move to new, yet undeveloped farmland.

[20] The two had met at the Monte Carlo Television Festival several years before Neretva when, as described below, Bulajic took home the Golden Nymph Award for his Skoplje '63 documentary about the devastating earthquake in the Macedonian capital.

In a 2014 interview, Bulajić attributed Neretva's success to its unconventional plot which only includes 15 minutes of shooting and battles while the rest is dedicated to the story of how the wounded were saved and cared for.

[27] The premiere of Bulajić's film The Day That Shook the World was personally organized by Italy's First Lady, Vittoria Leone.

The movie, Escape to the Sea, stars Game of Thrones actor Tom Wlaschiha as a German soldier lost behind enemy lines in World War II.

The monograph was compiled by Božo Rudez (father of former NBA player Damjan Rudež) and it was presented to the public by the Croatian Minister of Culture Berislav Šipuš.

After an hours-long standoff with the navy, their ship, Slavija, successfully broke the blockade in late November 1991 and delivered the desperately needed supplies to the city's residents as well as refugees from surrounding areas.

[32] At a 2010 remembrance meeting organized by Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor, Bulajić stated that the convoy was, at the time, one of the most positive global initiatives.

[35] In the late 1990s Bulajić demanded a government inquiry into the misuse of funds allocated to support a film he was writing and directing on the topic of the siege of Sarajevo.

[38] Eighteen years earlier, Bulajić had accompanied then-Croatian President Stjepan Mesić on his historic visit to meet then-President Đukanović (who was at the time serving his first term in office).

[40] Also in 2019, Bulajić was a signatory to a public appeal urging the international community to condemn the Serbian "political, religious and media campaign" aimed at destabilizing peace and stability in neighboring Montenegro.

[47] Bulajić's final resting place is in the Alley of the Greats at Mirogoj Cemetery where he is buried across from former NBA star Drazen Petrovic and next to Croatia's former football coach Ciro Blazevic.

Arguably Bulajić's greatest recognition came when the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) awarded him the prestigious Kalinga Prize for the most meaningful global artistic film contribution of the year.

This put the film in the company of masterpieces such as The Bridge on the River Kwai by David Lean and Empire of the Sun by Steven Spielberg.

[21] Throughout his career, Bulajić worked with a number of Hollywood stars including Orson Welles, Hardy Krüger, Sergei Bondarchuk, Franco Nero, Christopher Plummer and Yul Brynner.