ZAFRANOVIĆ: THE FILM "CHILDREN OF KOZARA" WAS MADE SO FUTURE GENERATIONS CAN UNDERSTAND EVIL

BELGRADE, OCTOBER 1 /SRNA/ – The film The Golden Cut 42 – Children of Kozara, about the suffering of children in the Ustasha-run camp system in the Independent State of Croatia, was made for future generations to understand evil, which is universal and which all people carry within themselves, film director Lordan Zafranović said today.

Zafranović stressed that through this film, which he has been working on since 1986, he began analyzing evil in human beings.

"Generations and generations will watch this film, and one day, 500 years from now, when archaeologists investigate the sites of these crimes, they will know that there was a war there and that people suffered," Zafranović said ahead of film screening.

He pointed out that today was also the first time he himself had watched the completed film and expressed his deep gratitude to everyone who had been part of this major project.

Zafranović singled out as particularly striking a scene depicting a mass slaughter with a srbosjek /Serb cutter knife/, with the Sun in the background.

"The Sun is present at that inexplicable evil and illuminates the fact that all of us carry within ourselves this genetic code of evil. Evil is within us, and ordinary people, under certain circumstances, become worse than any beast," Zafranović said.

Seventeen-year-old Banja Luka native Milica Stanković, who portrays the character of Zora Miljuš, a girl from Kozara, said that, like most of her peers, she had learned only the basic facts about Jasenovac and the suffering in the NDH, but that making the film had taught her much more about what everyone should know.

"So that we do not forget, so that it never happens again, and that we know that people committed this evil not so long ago," Stanković said.

Eighteen-year-old Vuk Trnavac from Belgrade, who played an orphan from Kostajnica, said that confronting all this evil was horrifying and that everyone had a difficult task in portraying the story in a credible manner.

Miki Manojlović, who makes a brief appearance in the film as Vukašin from Klepci, expressed his gratitude to Zafranović for inviting him to be part of this major project. He also said that the acclaimed director from Maslinica on the island of Šolta deserves everyone’s support.

Actress Katarina Radivojević, who plays a Jewish woman who survives in Jasenovac as the camp commandant’s mistress, says there is something greater than all politics, which is this film.

"This is our history, our remembrance that must never be forgotten. I am deeply grateful to Zafranović for leaving us this film," Radivojević said.

During the press conference, it was announced that tomorrow’s premiere at the Sava Centre in Belgrade has sold out.

The arrival of actors from Croatia who have some of the film’s key roles has been called into question due to significant pressure from the Croatian public.

A day after its Belgrade premiere, the film that has been awaited for decades will also be shown to audiences in Banja Luka.