Dara of Jasenovac

After the Axis-led Kozara Offensive, the majority of the local Serb population ends up in Croatian Ustasha concentration camps.

With no information about the whereabouts of her father, twelve-year-old Dara, her mother and two brothers are transported to the Jasenovac concentration camp by train.

Dara is separated from her family and sent to a special camp for children along with her two-year-old brother Budo. Her mother and older brother are killed by Ustashas. Dara makes it her personal mission and goal to insure the survival of her younger brother.

In an undisclosed location nearby, Dara's father Mile is tasked with removing and disposing of dead bodies. He is devastated when he discovers his own wife and son are among the dead. He also hears rumors that Dara is still alive somewhere in the Jasenovac complex.

Dara observes the cruelty of the officers in the camp and is shocked by the violence. One night the guards devise a game of musical chairs as entertainment for visiting German Nazi officers. The loser of each round is sliced open or bludgeoned by a hammer. With the help of a Jewish prisoner, Blankica, Dara plots a path to escape.

An old brickyard located in the village of Kolut near Sombor was reconstructed and turned into a camp by production designer Goran Joksimović. The second part of the movie was shot in Bela Crkva.[12]

Children from Kozarska Dubica were chosen to portray numerous children who were imprisoned in the camp. Scenes with the children were shot in sequence in order to mask the growth of children over the three months of shooting and those young actors would better understand the material.[13] A psychologist was kept on the set.[13]

A number of actors from Republika Srpska took part in the project,[14] joined by their colleagues from Serbia.

Dara in Jasenovac was supported by Ministry of Culture and Information and Film Center Serbia.[15]

American scholar Michael Berenbaum served as history consultant and executive producer.[16][17]

The Serbian premiere took place in Gračanica and the movie was screened for seven days.[18]

101 Studios secured the U.S. rights for the film and released it in limited theatres on 5 February 2021.[17][19]

Part of the Croatian media complained about the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC)'s lack of investment in historical films, in contrast to Film Center Serbia (FCS), and blamed them because a film that "depicts Croats as bad", since Vjekoslav Luburić is one of its main characters, was going to be distributed worldwide. They, however, praised Antonijević and Drakulić, calling them "a quality director and a quality screenwriter", as well as the film production.[20]

Due to coordinated rating on IMDb, either with the highest or the lowest number of stars, IMDb temporarily disabled the rating option for the film in February 2021.[21]

The film was met with mixed reviews from international media. On Rotten Tomatoes, it holds an approval rating of 58% based on 12 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3/10.[22] Rating on IMDb was discontinued after coordinated efforts by users with conflicting views to change the film's rating.[23]

Jay Weissberg of Variety gave the film a negative review. Weissberg questions the producers' motives and writes that the film contains "undisguised anti-Croatian and anti-Catholic elements" which are "designed as incendiary fodder" for current conflicts, and that it lacks any serious examination of the dangers of nationalism, racism and genocide which are instead replaced with "cheap sensation and sentiment".[24] Film director Antonijević responded to Weissberg's critique, dubbing it as a political "pamphlet" rather than a movie review as it contained "only two or three sentences about the film itself".[25] Serbian Minister of Culture and Information Maja Gojković alluded that the negative reviews were lobbied by Croatia.[26] Representatives of the film's distributor, MegaCom Film, stated that Weissberg had never previously reviewed any Serbian film, and that his review amounted to a relativization and trivialization of genocide.[27] Executive producer Michael Berenbaum disputed Weissberg's "anti-Croatian and anti-Catholic" charges as "nonsense", stressing the film's factual adherence to camp testimonials and that if someone thinks the story is political, "that's [them] bringing it to the story". Meanwhile, Weissberg—who is Jewish himself—revealed that he received online antisemitic abuse in a campaign directed at him by Serbian Minister of Internal Affairs Aleksandar Vulin. Highlighting Vulin's close relationship with the widow of Slobodan Milošević, Weissberg stated, "This is a man who has certainly condoned a genocide who is turning around and calling me a Holocaust denier".[28]

Writing for Film Threat, Ray Lobo reviewed the film positively, noting that it is "a unique World War II story worth watching" and serves as a "World War II education" as well as an "education in the Balkan conflicts of the last decade of the twentieth century". Lobo praises the film's production quality and lighting as well as the cast for effectively conveying "both the degradation of camp life and the will to live".[29]

In The Jewish Chronicle, Linda Marric rated the film two stars out of five, stating that the film "often feels needlessly gratuitous... as though the film takes pleasure in depicting these atrocities in every lurid detail". She states that "the film often descends into nationalistic and anti-Croat fervour", but praised the film's technical quality and the "beautifully understated performance" of actress Biljana Čekić.[30]

In his review, Robert Abele of Los Angeles Times echoed some of Weissberg's sentiments, calling the film "nativist and manipulative", remarking that "it smacks of scoring points in a longstanding regional feud". Abele went on to state that, "when there's a scene in which the visiting Nazi bristles at the display of one-on-one sadism toward Serbian prisoners from his crisply uniformed Croatian hosts (which include incestuous brother and sister officers), you know you're in agenda territory." He criticised Antonijević's "use of a fantasy element for every death" as "off-putting", but complimented the performances of the actors who portrayed the brutalized prisoners.[31] Antonijević told the Nova.rs internet portal that he intended to sue over this review, on the grounds that it denied the genocide of Serbs during World War II.[23]

Cynthia Vinney of Comic Book Resources described Dara of Jasenovac as one of the Holocaust films that "exist for cynical reasons." She went on to describe the film's depiction of violence as comical and straining credulity, as well as that it has a "sickening effect of making the Nazis momentarily sympathetic." She concluded that the film signals an agenda born out of current animosities between Serbia and Croatia, and that it is a "tragic story with no nuance or insight beyond the horror."[32]

• List of submissions to the 93rd Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film
• List of Serbian submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film

• Dara iz Jasenovca at IMDb
• Dara of Jasenovac - OST
• Official Trailer