Djeca Kozare Cast Skips FEST Opening After Threats
Rene Bitorajac, Milivoj Beader and Vilim Matula will not be at Sava Centar on October 2, when Zafranovic's film opens the 53rd FEST, and threats of violence are circulating online.
Sava Centar will open the 53rd FEST on October 2 with Lordan Zafranovic’s “Zlatni rez 42 - Djeca Kozare” (Golden Cut 42 - The Children of Kozara), but according to the weekly Vreme, the Croatian actors who star in it will not be on the red carpet. Those reported to be staying away include Rene Bitorajac, Milivoj Beader and Vilim Matula, and the other participants from Croatia are also said to be skipping the event.
The reason is threats. Vreme reports that people involved in the film are being threatened with violence on social media, with talk of “throwing them into a pit” if they come to Belgrade and bow to the audience, and with calls for them to be expelled from Croatia. The weekly attributes this to the Croatian far right. Vreme broke the story first, and Danas picked it up on September 29, stating clearly that it relies on Vreme. Neither of the two articles carries a statement from the actors themselves.
What is the objection to a film nobody has seen?
The film will premiere at FEST, so until October 2 it was not available to anyone on either side of the dispute, and Danas notes explicitly in its report that Zafranovic’s critics are attacking a film that has yet to be shown. According to Vreme, they claim the director has rewritten history and stretched responsibility for the crimes of the Ustasha regime onto Croatian society and the state. Their sharpest complaint is that the film was made with money from Serbia, which they call “Vucic’s” money. They also claim Zafranovic is “collecting cheap political points” in Serbia.
One of the comments Vreme cites was written by a YouTube user under the film’s trailer:
“Propaganda of the first order. Zafranovic has been making nothing but propaganda for 50 years. But that propaganda keeps him well fed and well watered. And then he calls himself a patriot who is doing all this for the good of Croatia. This only serves the Greater Serbian ideology. I think they are bursting with joy in Belgrade.”
The author of the comment is not named. It is an assessment of the film and its director and contains no threat, while Vreme lists the threats separately, as messages from social media.
What is the film about, and who is in it?
The film deals with the suffering of children and civilians during the 1942 offensive on Kozara: Serbs, Jews, Roma and Croatian antifascists. The cast includes:
- Leon Lucev
- Rene Bitorajac
- Milan Maric
- Milivoj Beader
- Aleksej Bjelogrlic
- Bojan Navojec
The special guest is Predrag Miki Manojlovic. Two of the actors listed, Bitorajac and Beader, are among those who, according to Vreme, will not come to Sava Centar.
Belgrade actors and the question of a boycott
Vreme also relays claims by pro-government media that some Belgrade actors will stay away too, in solidarity with their Croatian colleagues. The same outlets, the weekly says, interpret this as a boycott of a festival backed by the Ministry of Culture and Aleksandar Vucic. Neither of the two articles names these actors, so the claim cannot be checked against them.
This year’s FEST selector, Dragan Jelicic, had earlier warned that the festival should not be opened with Zafranovic’s film, because the controversy around it could overshadow the entire program. Vreme concludes that he seems to have been right.
Until October 2, one fact remains that neither side disputes: nobody has seen the film yet, and it is already being judged.
