Dara of Jasenovac

The roundup occurs after the Kozara Offensive, when Axis forces conquered the Kozara region in the Independent State of Croatia. The Ustaše regime targeted Serbs for deportation to concentration camps as part of systematic persecution, alongside Jews, Roma, and other groups. Dara's confusion in the film reflects how victims struggled to understand why they were being targeted despite looking identical to their persecutors.

At the train station adorned with Nazi flags, Ustaše priest Father Miroslav Filipović conducts a brutal selection process. He separates the sick and elderly from those fit for transport. Those deemed unfit are left behind and shot dead by Filipović himself, while Dara and the rest are loaded into cattle cars bound for Jasenovac.

When Ustaše guard Ante Vrban orders families to surrender their children for separation, Dara's mother refuses to hand over her older son Jovo. In response, Vrban shoots both her and Jovo dead on the spot. This demonstrates the immediate and ruthless consequences of non-compliance, as well as the deliberate strategy of family destruction used by the camp guards.

The guards organize a macabre version of musical chairs for visiting German officers. Prisoners circle around chairs while music plays; when it stops, anyone left without a seat is killed, either having their throat slashed with a srbosjek (a specialized Serbian-slaughtering knife) or being bludgeoned with a hammer. Dara witnesses this horror, which exemplifies the torture and entertainment rituals imposed on prisoners.

A desperate mother carrying her crying baby notices a young Croatian peasant woman working in the fields alongside the marching column. Recognizing she cannot protect her child through what lies ahead, the mother makes the agonizing choice to leave the baby with the peasant woman before returning to the column of prisoners. This quiet act of mercy gives the child a chance at survival outside the camp.

While Dara and her family are transported to Jasenovac, her father Mile Ilić is taken to a separate location within the camp complex. He is forced to work as a forced laborer tasked with removing and disposing of dead bodies. This cruel twist separates the family and forces Mile into the macabre work of handling the dead, though he remains alive elsewhere in the camp system.

Blankica is a Jewish prisoner already held in the women's and children's section of Jasenovac. She becomes Dara's ally and helps her devise an escape plan. Despite the camp's brutal conditions, Blankica maintains the will to resist and plots a path toward freedom, showing how prisoners formed bonds across backgrounds to survive.

A srbosjek is a large, curved knife traditionally used for slaughtering livestock. In Jasenovac, the guards weaponize this tool against prisoners during the musical chairs game, slashing the throats of those who lose. The use of this particular knife carries symbolic weight, as its name combines "Serb" and "to slaughter", reflecting the刀具 genocide being carried out.

Ante Vrban is a Ustaše guard at Jasenovac who directly carries out executions. He is the one who shoots Dara's mother and older brother when she refuses to surrender the boy during the family separation process. Vrban represents the enforcers who implemented the camp's policy of breaking families and committing immediate violence against those who resisted.

After losing her mother and older brother, Dara is sent to a special section of Jasenovac for women and children, where she becomes the sole guardian of her younger brother. She makes his survival her personal mission, learning to navigate the camp's dangers while drawing on courage she didn't know she possessed. The section represents the particularly vulnerable position of children in the camp system.