Predrag Antonijević

(Google Streaming, December 2021) If I was in a flippant mood (which Dara of Jasenovac most definitely isn’t), I’d joke that the evils of WW2 are still being perpetrated through endless tales of misery and suffering unleashed on modern movie audiences, with repeated trips to concentration camps, further demonstrations of the evils of Axis powers and further proof that humans can be terrible. But while joking around on such matters is rude and inappropriate, it’s based on some truth: if you voluntarily subject yourself to Dara of Jasenovac, you should be aware of what’s in store for you. There is some historic merit in having a film focused on the only concentration camp not run by Nazis (the Croatian camp of Jasenovac) — the story here has to do with a girl being sent to that camp trying to survive and escape with her younger brother. But the way that Dara of Jasenovac chooses to take this premise and execute it has more similarities with exploitative score-setting than a sensitive wartime drama. The way the film showcases its atrocities is not only uncomfortable in itself, but in how director Predrag Antonijević seems to find joy in staging them. Some moments are so awful that even the visiting Nazis are disgusted by them, and the film takes delight in making a young woman one of the cruellest antagonists. If you start digging into why this film would make these choices, it gets worse. It’s a trite statement at this point to say that it’s impossible to look at the Balkans and escape unscathed by its long-running ethnic strife. This is often reflected in the art coming out of that region as well. You can’t have lived through the 1990s without having heard of Serbian war crimes and atrocities, and it’s not a coincidence if a Serbian film looked to history in order to highlight war atrocities committed by neighbouring Croatia against Serbians. None of this makes Dara of Jasenovac any easier to take, although it’s almost a relief that the film has something like a happy ending to offer. But it’s a reminder that war movies are seldom neutral. Sure, seeing Nazis punched in the face feels good because very few people still associate with Nazis these days… but such antagonists are rarer when you’re not talking about Nazis. Often, there’s still a clear trace running from then to now, and it’s a political act to remind people of that.