KARAN: IN ZAFRANOVIĆ’S FILM, ART, HISTORY AND TRUTH HAVE BECOME ONE

BANJA LUKA, OCTOBER 3 /SRNA/ - Republika Srpska President Siniša Karan said that the most important message of Lordan Zafranović’s film The Golden Cut 42 – Children of Kozara is that future generations should know why and how Republika Srpska was created, and that its greatest value is that art, history and truth have become one.

Karan said that he was looking forward with particular emotion and deep respect to seeing the film, which depicts one of the, unfortunately, many ordeals suffered by the Serbian people throughout their history.

He thanked Zafranović and his team, saying that they had used all their artistic talent to turn one of the great ordeals suffered by the Serbian people into a work of art.

Karan believes that this film cannot be viewed solely as a work of art.

"Here, art has demonstrated the kind of engagement that art should always demonstrate: it actually places historical facts in their proper historical context, especially difficult facts," Karan told reporters before the screening in Banjaluka.

He stressed that the most valuable thing the film will show is the truth about the ordeal suffered by the Serbian people, this time on Mount Kozara, and about the NDH, where genocide was committed against the Serbian people, particularly against children.

"Here, art, history and truth have become one, and that, in my view, is the greatest value of this film," Karan stressed.

He said that the truth had been concealed since the 1940s, during and after the Second World War, which had never contributed to reconciliation among the peoples.

"Not only that, it contributed to the continuation of the conflicts. The Defensive-Patriotic War was, among other things, also a result of the concealment and suppression of the truth," Karan said.

He said that Republika Srpska was created on the foundations of the crimes committed in the Independent State of Croatia, on Mount Kozara, in Jasenovac, Donja Gradina, Jadovno and numerous other sites of mass killings.

"Republika Srpska was founded on the historical memory of the ordeal and destruction of the Serbian people," Karan added.

He said that the preamble to the Declaration on January 9 states that Republika Srpska was established so that these ordeals would never happen or be repeated.

"The institutional framework for the survival and progress of the Serbian people today is Republika Srpska. Our historical memory obliges us to value Republika Srpska, and Republika Srpska is the institutional framework to ensure that such evil never happens again. We often say that a people without its own institutions and state cannot preserve its physical existence either," Karan said.

He believes that Zafranović’s film contributes precisely to that historical memory and culture of remembrance.

Karan said it was very important that the Declaration of the All-Serb Assembly identified the common identity of the Serbian people, wherever they may live, as well as their ordeals.

He added that one of the key points of the All-Serb Assembly resolution was precisely this film.

"Our children should go on joint school trips to visit all those sites of suffering: Kozara, Jasenovac, Donja Gradina and Jadovno. They should visit all those places and, based on that understanding, above all appreciate the present of both Serbia and Republika Srpska. But most importantly, they should do everything in their power to ensure that Kozara, Jadovno, Jasenovac or any other site of mass killing never happens again in the future," Karan stressed.

Karan recalled that he had recently been to Corfu, where the delegation laid flowers in the "Blue Tomb".

"There are too many Blue Tombs of the Serbian people, too many graves without a cross above them, but there is soul, spirit, pride and the strength to appreciate and cherish what we have today, and what we have is called freedom. That freedom is called Republika Srpska and Serbia," Karan added.

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