Dara Of Jasenovac is a Serbian film from writer, Nataša Drakulić, and director, Predrag Antonijević, and it also serves as the country’s submission for the upcoming Academy Awards. It follows a 10-year-old Serbian girl named Dara (Biljana Čekić), who is taken, along with her mother and two brothers, to a Croatian concentration camp near Jasenovac. Unbeknownst to the rest of the family, Dara’s father, Mile (Zlatan Vidovic), is alive, and stuck in another camp not too far from where they are. He is forced to dispose bodies, those of his people, mercilessly killed by the sadistic Croatian soldiers in the surrounding camps.
Not too long into Dara and her family’s introduction to the camp, her mother and older brother are both killed, leaving Dara alone to take care of her two-year-old brother, Bude. From then on, the film explores the many day-to-day horrors of the camp, showing how some individuals are forced to survive, in some cases, having to work directly with the soldiers, and call out anyone who might be stealing food or breaking other protocol. Dara receives help from several strangers, but even those strangers are at the mercy of the soldiers, and for some of them, they do not end up lasting too long. Yet, Dara is determined to take care of her brother.
This is apparently the first, or at least one of the first, major films to tackle the injustices and atrocities that occurred in these Croatian camps during WWII and its contribution to the genocide of Serbs as a whole. I would say that’s the one thing that really separates this from any other Holocaust film. While the film doesn’t give a ton of context surrounding the Serbs, their dynamic with Croatia, and how that country played into the Axis powers, you do get the gist of it, and the drama at the center of it doesn’t really require a ton of knowledge to follow.
The film is very well made. Predrag Antonijević’s career has spanned a few decades, and he is no stranger to heavy material like this. The general feel is very respectable and delicate, with most of it having a very classical aesthetic and pace, and it definitely looks like they have had some money put into it. The sets, costumes, and period details look really good and authentic, really establishing a sense of place that further immerses you into the realities of this harsh world. Stylistic flourishes are few and far between, but there is this recurring bit where we see characters who have died appearing out of a white void to enter a train cart where other dead characters are seated and waiting. It’s a bold choice that could end up corny and tacky in the wrong hands, but it ends up being quite affecting.
The Jasenovac concentration camp is notorious for its brutality, even by the standards set by Nazi Germany, often utilizing knives and other blunt instruments, and killing people in a very personal, in-your-face kind of way. That’s reflected here with a lot of the film’s more disturbing moments where people are killed with hammers, knives, and such. There’s even a sequence that I can only say is easily the most intense game of musical chairs that I have ever seen. However, as unflinching as it got, it never veers into exploitation or gratuitousness. The violence is shocking, but it’s quick and it focuses on the way these deaths affect everyone else.
The only thing that holds the film back from being great is that it doesn’t do much to break the mold of any other generic Holocaust film. The setting certainly brings a fascinating angle that deserves to have its own spotlight, but I don’t feel like I learned much about the Serbs, and the specificities of their struggles. Also, as a drama, it can be a bit tedious, especially in the second half when it’s almost scene after scene of either people getting killed, Dara observing all the horrors of the camp, and Bude being in danger because he won’t stop crying. There’s a slight thrust in the plot from the scenes with Mile, who wants to reunite with his kids, especially after discovering the bodies of his wife and older son, but you never feel that momentum building, it’s something that is always to the side of the central narrative.
That said, Dara Of Jasenovac is a film that I think is worth checking out, especially given how I didn’t have a ton of knowledge of this particular area of WWII, and it’s nice to see a story like this being given its spotlight. Biljana Čekić really shines as the titular character, and it’s even more surprising given that it’s her first film role. She carries the film fairly well, having to get across a lot of complicated emotions rooted in the horrific and unthinkable situation Dara has found herself in, and there is hardly ever a false note. The performances all around are very good. A part of me certainly wishes I was able to get a bit more out of this aside from a basic horrors of war message, but you can certainly feel the weight of the material, and that’s because the filmmaking itself is good enough to keep you engaged with it. And like I said, this is a perspective on the war that I haven’t been exposed to, and I’m all for that, especially in a part of history that has been mined from top to bottom in many areas.
Dara Of Jasenovac opens in select theaters on February 5th.