Based on the testimonies of survivors, it deals with war crimes and atrocities that took place at Jasenovac concentration camp,[5][6] which was a part of the Holocaust and the wider genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia.
[14][15] After the Axis-led Kozara Offensive, the majority of the local Serb population ends up in Ustaše and Nazi German concentration camps in the Independent State of Croatia.
A woman marching in the column of prisoners carries her crying baby and makes eye contact with one of the young Croatian peasant women working the fields.
At a train station adorned with the Nazi German flag, Father Miroslav Filipović separates the sick and elderly from the rest, who are forced into the cattle cars.
[25] The film was originally set to be released in early 2020 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the escape of prisoners from the camp but was pushed back to October and postponed a second time due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Yeomans disputes the characterizations made by negative reviews and writes that "there is little evidence of a nationalist agenda" in the film, citing as an example a scene early on where a Croatian woman saves a baby, thus making a distinction between ordinary Croats from the Ustashas.
The film, according to Byford, often invokes clichés which argue that even the Nazis were horrified by the brutality of the Ustashas in order to highlight that Jasenovac was "worse than Auschwitz, and therefore the Serbs have actually suffered a lot more than Jews".
Biserko's statements were prompted by Predrag Antonijević's appearance in the talk show Dobro jutro Srbijo on Happy TV where he mocked the victims of the Omarska concentration camp together with the host Milomir Marić.
[34][35] Porfirije, Serbian Patriarch, stated that the movie should not be a cause for holding grudges and that "everyone can check the stance of their heart and pray to the Lord that nothing like that ever happens again".
Weissberg questions the producers' motives and writes that the film contains "undisguised anti-Croatian and anti-Catholic elements" which are "designed as incendiary fodder" for current conflicts, and that it lacks any serious examination of the dangers of nationalism, racism and genocide which are instead replaced with "cheap sensation and sentiment".
Highlighting Vulin's close relationship with the widow of Slobodan Milošević, Weissberg stated, "This is a man who has certainly condoned a genocide who is turning around and calling me a Holocaust denier".
[44] In his review, Robert Abele of Los Angeles Times echoed some of Weissberg's sentiments, calling the film "nativist and manipulative", remarking that "it smacks of scoring points in a longstanding regional feud".
Abele went on to state that, "when there's a scene in which the visiting Nazi bristles at the display of one-on-one sadism toward Serbian prisoners from his crisply uniformed Croatian hosts (which include incestuous brother and sister officers), you know you're in agenda territory."
[45] Antonijević told the Nova S internet portal that he intended to sue over this review, on the grounds that it denied the genocide of Serbs during World War II.
[46] Cynthia Vinney of Comic Book Resources described Dara of Jasenovac as one of the Holocaust films that "exist for cynical reasons."
She concluded that the film signals an agenda born out of current animosities between Serbia and Croatia, and that it is a "tragic story with no nuance or insight beyond the horror.
[48] Joe Friar of The Victoria Advocate hails Biljana Čekić's performance as "very realistic and natural" and praises the film for dealing with a "rarely-seen chapter of WWII", but called the reenactments "inflated", and said that as a "dramatic work of fiction based on actual events, the exaggerated tone detracts from the overall message.