The site of the World War II Ustasha-run concentration camp of Jasenovac, where Serbs were killed in large numbers, should, instead of being cause for arguments over victims or cause for hatred, be a place of "humble and dignified prayer," Serb Orthodox Church leader Porfirije said on Wednesday.

Porfirije, the former Metropolitan of Zagreb and Ljubljana, who was elected the 46th leader of the Serb Orthodox Church last week, spoke about the “Dara of Jasenovac”, a film about of the plight of Serbs in the Jasenovac concentration camp in the WWII Nazi-allied Independent State of Croatia.

The movie was the Serbian candidate for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, but was not shortlisted.

It was premiered in Serbia last Saturday, causing emotional reactions with the Serbian public.

However, in Croatia and the rest of the world the movie was met with negative reviews, which described it as nationalist propaganda.

Patriarch Porfirije said that he was not competent to comment on artistic criteria, but that he considered it important for the Serbian cinematography to have addressed “something that was engulfed by the fog of oblivion and covered up.”

“It is important to penetrate oblivion. But, at the same time, one should prevent it from becoming a reason for resentment and everyone should look into their own heart and pray to God that something similar never happens ever again,” Porfirije said after a meeting with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

Jasenovac is not a place where “we do mathematics, add and subtract, but a place where, as the Church, we attempt to make room for prayer in a humble and dignified way,” he stressed.

Vucic, who had personally asked that the state finance the making of the film, said last Sunday that the film was very important for the Serb people, saying there was “no place where Serbs had suffered more than in Jasenovac.”

Croatian and Serbian historians disagree on the number of Serbs killed at Jasenovac, with estimates ranging from tens of thousands to several hundred thousand. Apart from Serbs, also killed at Jasenovac were Jews, Roma, and Croats who opposed the then pro-fascist puppet regime in Croatia.