DramaHistoryWar

Dara of Jasenovac

During the Nazi-occupied Ustasha regime "NDH" in former Yugoslavia during WWII, little girl Dara is sent to the concentration camp complex Jasenovac in Croatia also known as "Balkan's Auschwitz".

Release Date : 2020-11-25

Language :CroatianSerbian

Adult : false

Status : Released

Production Company : Dandelion ProductionFilm DanasKomuna

Production Country : Serbia

Alternative Titles :

Cast

Character Name : Dara

Original Name : Biljana Čekić

Gender : Male

Character Name : Vjekoslav 'Maks' Luburić

Original Name : Marko Janketić

Gender : Male

Character Name : Fra Majstorović

Original Name : Vuk Kostić

Gender : Male

Character Name : Ante Vrban

Original Name : Igor Đorđević

Gender : Male

Character Name : Radojka

Original Name : Nataša Ninković

Gender : Female

Character Name : Čovek koji je odbijen da uđe u voz

Original Name : Radoslav 'Rale' Milenković

Gender : Male

Character Name : Nada Ilić

Original Name : Anja Stanić

Gender : Male

Character Name : Mileva

Original Name : Nikolina Friganović

Gender : Male

Character Name : Mile Ilić

Original Name : Zlatan Vidović

Gender : Male

Character Name : Stjepan

Original Name : Željko Erkić

Gender : Male

Character Name : Nemački oficir

Original Name : Петар Зекавица

Gender : Male

Character Name : Vera Stanić

Original Name : Sandra Ljubojević

Gender : Male

Character Name : Nada Sakić

Original Name : Alisa Radaković

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Bogdan Bogdanović

Gender : Male

Character Name : Jovo Ilić

Original Name : Marko Pipić

Gender : Male

Character Name : Bogdan

Original Name : Nikola Radulj

Gender : Male

Character Name : Rade

Original Name : Rajko Lukač

Gender : Male

Character Name : Brana

Original Name : Anđela Janjić

Gender : Male

Character Name : Mirjana

Original Name : Milica Janjić

Gender : Male

Character Name : Jaša

Original Name : Bojan Žirović

Gender : Male

Character Name : Jovanka Končar

Original Name : Nataša Drakulić

Gender : Male

Character Name : Božica

Original Name : Ana Lečić

Gender : Male

Character Name : Anđelko

Original Name : Marko Pavlovski

Gender : Male

Character Name : Draginja Jović

Original Name : Marta Ćeranić

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Dragoslav Medojević

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Ivan Zekić

Gender : Male

Character Name : Blankica

Original Name : Jelena Moore

Gender : Female

Character Name : Milanka

Original Name : Danijela Vranješ

Gender : Male

Character Name : Opatica

Original Name : Tatjana Kecman

Gender : Male

Character Name : Mladen

Original Name : Jovo Maksić

Gender : Male

Character Name : Zagorka

Original Name : Sara Marinković

Gender : Male

Character Name : Grobar komandir

Original Name : Goran Jokić

Gender : Male

Character Name : Ruža

Original Name : Vesna Kljajić-Ristović

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Stefan Vukić

Gender : Male

Character Name : Dinko Šakić

Original Name : Petar Đurđević

Gender : Male

Character Name : Starica

Original Name : Aneta Tomašević

Gender : Male

Character Name : Šofer nemačkog oficira

Original Name : Jovan Petrović

Gender : Male

Character Name : Dijana Budisavljević

Original Name : Sanja Moravčić

Gender : Male

Character Name : Bude Ilić

Original Name : Luka Šaranović

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Jakov Šaranović

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Simon Šaranović

Gender : Male

Character Name : Žena iz Crvenog krsta 1

Original Name : Milena Nikolić

Gender : Male

Character Name : Žena iz Crvenog krsta 2

Original Name : Nataša Balog

Gender : Male

Character Name : Žena iz Crvenog krsta 3

Original Name : Natalija Žugić

Gender : Male

Character Name : Žena iz Crvenog krsta 4

Original Name : Marija Šaranović

Gender : Male

Character Name : Žena u polju

Original Name : Andrea Forca

Gender : Female

Reviews

badelf

@badelf

2025-03-22

There's a particular discomfort in discovering, after decades of historical education and over a hundred Holocaust-related films, that significant chapters of atrocity have remained invisible to me. "Dara of Jasenovac" delivers precisely this uncomfortable revelation, chronicling horrors at Croatia's Jasenovac concentration camp - a genocide I had never encountered in history books or cinema. Predrag Antonijevic's unflinching film follows ten-year-old Dara through what was sometimes called "the Auschwitz of the Balkans", where the fascist Ustase regime murdered primarily Serbs, but also Jews, Roma, and political dissidents. That such a significant murder camp could remain relatively unknown in the Western conscious speaks to the politics of historical memory. What distinguishes this story is not just its focus on a lesser-known atrocity, but its disturbing examination of Croatia's independent enthusiasm for mass murder, without direct Nazi management. "Dara of Jasenovac" functions as both historical correction and cold mirror. The film's most devastating insight is not historical but philosophical. Through Dara's eyes, we witness the seamless transformation of ordinary people into monsters. Unlike the bureaucratic, industrialized killing of Nazi death camps, Jasenovac reveals something more primal - the apparent eagerness with which humans will torture and murder their neighbors when given permission by authority. The film's power comes largely from its uncompromising realism. Antonijevic's direction, the haunting cinematography, meticulously detailed sets, and the extraordinarily naturalistic performances - especially from Biljana Cekic as Dara - create an immersive historical world that feels horrifyingly authentic. Cekic's performance is remarkable for its restraint; her watchful eyes become our lens into this nightmare. This movie raises the questions "How could this specific atrocity be forgotten?", and the more significant "What within human nature makes such cruelty possible?" Both these questions are terribly uncomfortable. The latter even more terrifying in the light of the rise of fascist power in the United States. That humans so readily inflict suffering on one another when ideologically sanctioned, casts the lens on the darkest side of our human nature. "Dara of Jasenovac" is difficult, necessary cinema that reminds us that the phrase "never again" remains hollow so long as significant chapters of atrocity remain unacknowledged and the human capacity for cruelty remains unexamined.