DODIK: ZAFRANOVIĆ’S FILM A WAY TO PASS PART OF THE TRUTH ABOUT SUFFERING IN THE NDH ON TO NEW GENERATIONS

BANJA LUKA, OCTOBER 3 /SRNA/ - Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik said that Lordan Zafranović’s film The Golden Cut 42 – The Children of Kozara reflects what Ustaša policy was and provides a way to pass on to new generations part of the truth about the suffering in the concentration camps of the NDH.

"We have waited a long time for the suffering of the Serbian people at the hands of the evil known as the Ustaša state to be brought to the screen, where innocent people suffered on a massive scale, regardless of age — women, the elderly and, in large numbers, children," Dodik told reporters after the film’s premiere screening in Banjaluka.

Dodik reminded that the Ustaše established the only concentration camp in the world specifically for children, where children were killed, and that this was the Ustaše camp for the children of Kozara, Serbian children from the region.

"This is the third time I have watched this film, and each time there is a scene that stays etched in my mind, one that I may not have fully grasped before," Dodik said.

He stressed that the film reflects what Ustasha policy was — to kill one-third of the Serbs, forcibly convert another third and expel the remaining third, in an attempt to eradicate the Serbian name and identity from the region.

"They inflicted immense suffering, which came close to never being brought to the screen in this way," Dodik said.

He thanked Zafranović for what he had done, as well as the entire cast for having the courage to bring such scenes to life.

Dodik also thanked everyone who had contributed in any way to the financing of the project.

"I am very proud that, as someone from Potkozarje who was raised with the memory of this suffering, I had the opportunity, as President of the Republic, to help make this film through financial support," Dodik said.

The premiere screening of Lordan Zafranović’s film The Golden Cut 42 – The Children of Kozara, about the suffering of Serbian children and the Serbian people of Kozara in the hell of the Ustaše-run Jasenovac concentration camp in the NDH, was held in Banjaluka.