In the United States, a film about the suffering of Serbs in the Ustashe concentration camp was declared “nationalist propaganda”

Ahead of the American release of the Oscar-nominated Serbian film Dara of Jasenovac, which tells the story of the victims of this Ustashe camp, New York Variety columnist Jay Weisberg attacked the film with criticism.

The critic called the film, based on real historical facts, “thinly disguised nationalist propaganda.”

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As a PolitNavigator correspondent reports, Weisberg is also ironic about the fact that Predrag Antonijevic’s film was nominated for an Oscar from Serbia.

“It is undeniable that the Jasenovac complex was famous among the death camps for the bloody cruelty of its commanders and their subordinates,” admits Weisberg. – The problem with this film is that it is overtly anti-Croatian, ill-conceived anti-Catholic nativism, an incendiary mixture for the current divisions between Serbia and its neighbors, and although it enthusiastically depicts sadism, contrasting it with childish innocence, it shuffles any thoughts about the dangers of nationalism, bloody racism and genocide and puts cheap sensations and feelings in their place.”

The American goes on to say that “subtlety” is not director Antonijevic’s strong point.

“If it weren’t for the contemporary context, Dara of Jasenovac would be just another Holocaust drama that uses violence in the same way as any serial killer film. But the backstory is inevitable, and in this case, the use of Jasenovac by Serbian nationalists turned the film into propaganda. Professor Jovan Byford has credibly and thoroughly explained how the suffering of the Serbs during the Holocaust was at one point a ploy to win international sympathy and legitimize territorial expansion along with racist policies,” Weisberg concludes.

For their part, Serbian experts were outraged by such bias of a film critic from the United States.

“After hundreds of films in which Serbs are portrayed as criminals and butchers, we have a film about the suffering of Serbs that changes Hollywood stereotypes,” Jedena Trivan, head of the Serbian Film Center, commented on the situation to Danas. – And, of course, especially Croatian lobbyists will treat the tape as Serbian propaganda. The author of the text does not dispute with a word that these are historical facts. Holocaust Institute director Michael Berenbaum served as script consultant behind every historical fact. So what's the problem? Ban the story of Serbian suffering? Reduce the Oscar chances of Gifts from Jasenovac because it will greatly change the perception of crime in the Balkans? Is Schindler's List Jewish Propaganda?

Let us remind you that screenings of the Serbian film “Dara from Jasenovac” will begin in the United States in February of this year. The film was shot with the support of the Serbian state by director Predrag Antonijevic from a script by Natasha Drakulic. It is based on real historical facts, in particular the history of the genocide against the Serbs that took place in the Kozara mountain range in western Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The script was written based on the memories of the few survivors of the Jaenovac concentration camp. The premiere screening of the film took place on November 25 last year in the Serbian enclave of Gracanica in Kosovo. Subsequently, the film was nominated from Serbia for an Oscar and a Golden Globe.

The film tells the story of a ten-year-old Serbian girl, Dara, who ended up in Jasenovac with her mother and two brothers. Soon the girl’s mother and older brother are killed, and the child, who has matured early, spends all her efforts and life trying to save her younger brother.