On March 1st in the crowded hall of St. Mother of freedom’s Church, about 500 viewers watched the premiere of the movie “Parish of St. Anthony of Padua Petrićevac”.
It is the first recorded sequel from the predicted series of Golgotha diocese of Banja Luka, and it deals with the time before the 1990s war, the time of the changes that affected these regions as well as the time of war and suffering and persecution from the homeland of almost all parishioners.
Among the audience were the representatives of the Central State Office for Croats outside the Republic of Croatia, whose financial support was used for filming of this movie, as well as the representatives of numerous associations which at the beginning of the program were welcomed by the President of Nazareth Association, Vinko Laštro.
The very beginning of the movie is about pre-war life in Petrićevac parish and Banja Luka because they are parts of the same space. Life before the war was ordinary and normal without major events. Life ran in a steady rhythm, business, family, socializing.
With the changes and the collapse of the former state, began the realization of a Greater Serbian policy that has only offered the rights to its own people, while the rest should have been driven out by asking or force. Then the first threats began, the throwing of bombs on Croat’s houses, the beatings and the first murders of people who were attacked only because they were not Serbs. Croats and Bosniaks were left without work, because they have not responded to JNA’s duties, which was only an extended arm of Greater Serbia.
Night shootings and intimidation became stronger and Banja Luka becomes a city camp where movement or gathering in more than three persons was forbidden as well as visits to relatives and friends, and a police watch was introduced. The red van that drove around the city arrested everyone that was out on the streets who weren’t Serbs, and took them to “Little camp”. People were interrogated, harassed, beaten up and taken to the front lines where they were used as living shields or as workers.
After war operations Bljesak and Oluja, in only 15 days of August in 1995., 20,000 Croats were banished from the Banja Luka region, and this was done by boats across Sava river from Srbac to Davor. Of the 6,000 pre-war parishioners of Petrićevac parish, there are now 370 of them, mostly elderly. At the end of the movie, bishop Franjo Komarica addressed the audience and thanked all those who contributed to filming of this movie, especially members of the Nazareth Association, whose idea began this project.
KT
Zagreb, 4. March 2019.
