101 Studios has released the official trailer and poster for Serbia’s official Academy Awards selection for Best International Feature, DARA OF JASENOVAC, along with a featurette that takes a behind-the-scenes look at this first-ever feature film about theviolent Holocaust-era concentration camp complex Jasenovac. Directed and produced by Predrag Peter Antonijevic, DARA OF JASENOVAC personalizes this part of history that has been mainly concealed from the public, through the eyes of a young girl named Dara. To this day, there is still controversy surrounding on how many lives were actually taken at Jasenovac.

Set in 1940s Croatia, DARA OF JASENOVAC follows 10-year-old Dara (Biljana Cekic) as she comes face-to-face with the horrors of the Holocaust-era after she, her mother and siblings are sent to the concentration camp complex known as Jasenovac. Considered one of the most overlooked parts of history, Jasenovac is not run by the Germans but by the fascist Ustase who brutally murdered Jews, Serb and Roma people, which included many women and children.

As unspeakable atrocities start to unfold, Dara must summon tremendous courage to protect her infant brother from a terrible fate while she safeguards her own survival and plots a precarious path toward freedom.

DARA OF JASENOVAC opens in select theaters on February 5, 2021.

Here is the film’s synopsis
In 1940s Croatia, 10-year-old Dara (Biljana Cekic) comes face-to-face with the horrors of the Holocaust-era after she is sent with her mother and siblings to the concentration camp complex known as Jasenovac. Overseen by vicious emissaries of the fascist Ustase government, the facility, the only operational death camp during World War II not created or run by the Germans, is tasked with murdering Serbs, Jews and Roma people-and re-educating the few children deemed worthy of rehabilitation. As unspeakable atrocities unfold all around her, young Dara must summon tremendous courage to protect her infant brother from a terrible fate, to safeguard her own survival and to plot a precarious path toward freedom.

After the death of their mother, blind and deaf sisters Anna and Beth live happily in a secluded small town with Father. However, when a neighbor stops by, Anna and Beth begin to question Father’s medical diagnoses and start to realize his intentions are more sinister than they could have imagined.

Shot in the haunting ephemeral landscapes of Vermont, and at times disturbing, Silence & Darkness carefully crafts a harrowing, and eerie portrait of two sisters forced to use every skill they have to uncover the truth about their family. Writer/director Barak Barkan’s feature debut takes the audience to an elliptical presence in Anna and Beth’s world, guiding our imaginations to follow them into peculiar, secret places.

“I sought to create tension between the viewer and the film, both through Anna and Beth’s interactions and Father’s backstory,” says writer/director Barak Barkan. “My goal is that while viewing the film, the audience will inhabit a constant state of curious unease—desperate to find out what led to the circumstances of this family’s life and what is going to happen next—while simultaneously fearful of the answer.”

Silence & Darkness is now available on VOD/Digital in the U.S. and Canada on Amazon, iTunes, Google Play, as well as Direct TV, Dish Network, Vubiquity, and Deluxe Canada. Silence & Darkness is written and directed by Barak Barkan. Produced by Barkan, and Pablo Burn. Cinematography by Omar Nasr, edited by Colton Fordyce, and music by Bob Dylan.