Djeca Kozare (The Golden Cut 42 (The Children of Kozara))
2 October at Sava Centre
The 53rd International Film Festival – FEST opens with the latest film by the celebrated director Lordan Zafranović, Djeca Kozare (The Golden Cut 42 (The Children of Kozara)) on 2 October 2026 at Sava Centre.
The FEST audience will have the opportunity to see the premiere of this great artist's work in the Blue Hall.
Based on a 1986 screenplay by Arsen Diklić and Lordan Zafranović and produced by TS Media, the film depicts the suffering of children in the Jasenovac concentration camp in 1942.
Amidst the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1941, under the auspices of Nazi Germany, the Croatian Nazi regime creates the Independent State of Croatia, in which it establishes Jasenovac – a death camp, a place where men, women, and children are killed face to face with their executioners. Through the intertwined perspectives of victims and perpetrators of crimes, director Lordan Zafranović explores the anatomy of evil. Serbs, Jews, Roma, and Croatian anti-fascists suffer at the hands of eight Ustasha murderers. One of them rebels, but soon becomes a victim of the evil he serves.
In order to portray the events of the summer of 1942 as truthfully as possible, the complex production design for this film was created on several locations in Serbia by Milenko Jeremić, a legendary Serbian production designer, who had already collaborated with Zafranović on the film Occupation in 26 Pictures.
The cast and crew, led by Zafranović, feature over 100 actors and more than 60 other professionals from the entire region.
Zafranović is the recipient of the Belgrade Victor award at the 51st FEST for his outstanding contribution to cinema.
‘This festival is a great celebration of film and that is why our responsibility as filmmakers is enormous, that is why we make films, for you, our faithful audience. That is why this award means so much to me and I hope it is not the last one,’ said the veteran director on that occasion, adding that he hoped to return to FEST with a new film, and now, he is doing just that.
Lordan Zafranović (1944), one of the most important directors in the ex-Yugoslav region, recently celebrated 60 years of his career. He spent the first years of his life with his mother and older brother in exile, in El Shatt in Sinai. He graduated in film directing from the renowned Film and TV School of Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU) in Prague in 1971, under Elmar Klos. Zafranović is among the most distinguished auteurs in the history of Yugoslav film. His most famous feature film, Occupation in 26 Images, was shown in the competition programme of the Cannes Film Festival in 1979. He has dedicated his entire life to the art of film and has made around 80 films to date.
The International Film Festival – FEST, after six years, returns to Sava Centre, where, as in other halls throughout Belgrade, its 53rd edition will be held from 2 to 11 October.