Dara Of Jasenovac (2021)

By: Mike Ward on Friday, February 12

R Running Time: 130 mins

SHOULD I SEE IT?

YES

  • Those who view and appreciate World War II-related cinema will find a new story to view - the first film to document the horrors committed at the Jasenovac Concentration Camp.

  • Retains a level of authenticity in that the screenplay was written from testimony and details provided by Jasenovac survivors.

  • For some viewers, this will prove cathartic and powerful. For others, this will prove divisive and nationalist.

NO

  • This is an extremely difficult film to watch, with the violence and bloodshed suffocating to endure for most viewers.

  • As indicated, Dara of Jasenovac is divisive and controversial - branded as propaganda in some circles. Proceed with caution.

  • The atrocities should be shown to tell this story; however, the crisp cinematography and the manner in which the violence is depicted makes the film seem obsessed with trauma and anguish.


OUR REVIEW

Serbia’s entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the upcoming 93rd Academy Awards, Dara of Jasenovac, arrives stateside carrying the weight of immense controversy and debate. Far be it from me to be an expert on such controversies, but when the film’s director has threatened to sue a newspaper for running a critical review, and others claim the film is state-authorized propaganda, one must think the film is swimming upstream a bit in the hopes of finding an audience.

Missing the shortlist of final 15 contenders for the Oscar in no way diminishes the film’s existence. 93 films were submitted for the award, and many good films missed the cut. That Dara of Jasenovac is not there could be for any number of reasons. I would argue the film’s bleak nature and unrelenting subject matter may have had a hand in missing with Oscar voters.

Now, however, Dara of Jasenovac is in the hands of North American moviegoers (the film does not open in Serbia until April 2021 because of COVID-19 restrictions) and though likely not a robust box office hit (especially in COVID-19), those willing to seek it out may find an intriguing new angle on the limitless stories borne out of World War II. Director Predrag Antonijevic frames his film through the eyes of a captivating young actor, Biljana Čekić, who portrays the 10-year-old female protagonist the film is named after.

Jasenovac is the notorious child concentration camp, formed by Croatian authorities in August 1941. Dara is among many children, including her 2-year-old brother Budo, separated from parents and sent to live at the camp. Reports have varied wildly through the years as to the number of victims slain at Jasenovac. Recent numbers have estimated 100,000 people lost their lives at the extermination camp, but initially it was believed between 700,000 and one million people died in the camp’s four years of existence. And now, perhaps, you sense at least some of the controversy the film brings with its release.

As the first film detailing the atrocities at Jasenovac, Antonijevic leaves no stone unturned in presenting the horrors which Dara witnesses. In her first-ever film appearance, Čekić carries pain, fear, and steely resolve in her cheekbones and clenched jaw. She is forced into a real-life Hell and is determined to find a pathway to survival.

Written by Nataša Drakulić, reportedly based, in part, on survivor’s testimony and first-hand accounts, this is simply a brutal film to watch. The Ustaše, the fascist Croatian regime who executed Serbs, Jews, and Roma persons, are the heartless, soulless murderers we anticipate embedding with as Dara travels to the camp. Still, the shocking levels of violence take our breath away. Random shootings, a gut-wrenching game of “musical chairs,” and other sequences are amplified throughout the film through Dara’s eyes. As she remains stoic in her response, we see something far more than innocence lost in a child’s expressive eyes – we see the absence of humanity illustrated to an impressionable child repeatedly.

Heavy as this is, the story of Dara’s father (Zlatan Vidović) trying to reconnect with his family serves as a subplot offering some hope. But as is the film’s M.O., even that story is steeped in horror as he works in disposal of the camp’s victims. There are simply few places to turn to find any daylight from the atrocities on screen.

This may fit with Dara’s story, and, in turn, the story needing to be told in recounting the events at Jasenovac, but for viewers it is hard to recognize anything other than inhumane behavior for the sake of shocking its audience. The crisp, clean cinematography, the leering images of violence and bloodshed may position trauma as a child may fixate on such behaviors, but the film settles into a pattern of shock, rather then exploration.

Shocking us into realization is one thing, but in the relentlessness that is Dara of Jasenovac, controversy or no controversy, the film serves as little more than an endurance test, as opposed to an engaging, thought-provoking film.

CAST & CREW

Starring: Biljana Čekić, Vuk Kostić, Marko Janketić, Igor Đorđević, Zlatan Vidović, Jelena Grujičić, Alisa Radaković

Director: Predrag Antonijević
Written by: Nataša Drakulić
Release Date: February 5, 2021
101 Studios