ILIĆ: GOLDEN CUT 42 - BEARS WITNESS TO SERB SUFFERING IN THE NDH

BANJA LUKA, SEPTEMBER 30 /SRNA/ - Dragoslav Ilić, president of the Banja Luka Association of Former World War II Camp Inmates and Their Descendants, said ahead of the premiere of Lordan Zafranović's film Golden Cut 42 - Children of Kozara that artistic works help preserve awareness of the scale and depth of the tragedy endured by the Serb people during World War II.

"The fact that Zafranović made this film, as well as the growing interest of filmmakers in the subject of our suffering, shows that the memory of our victims of genocide in the NDH remains very much alive and has entered a mature creative phase", Ilić told SRNA.

He said the film bears Zafranović's strong artistic signature, noting that the director developed an interest in the suffering of Serbs in the NDH several decades ago.

The film deals with the suffering of Serbs from Kozara during World War II, focusing on children who were separated from their parents during the 1942 offensive and deported to camps and other locations across the NDH.

The film will be screened in Banja Luka on Saturday, October 3, while its production was supported by institutions of Republika Srpska and Serbia. The Belgrade premiere is scheduled for the previous day.

Lordan Zafranović was born in 1944 in Maslinica on the island of Šolta. He has made more than 80 documentary and feature films, including Blood and Ashes of Jasenovac, Occupation in 26 Pictures, The Fall of Italy and the recently completed Golden Cut 42 - Children of Kozara.