Quo Vadis, Aida

Jasmila Sbanic (2020)

Jasna Duricic; Izudin Bajrovic; Boris Ler Rated 15 Run time 101 mins

This outstanding film, nominated for the foreign language Oscar and Bafta awards, centres on the Srebrenica massacre during the the Bosnian war in 1995 during which more than 8,000 Muslims were slaughtered despite them sheltering in a so-called U.N “safe area”.

It is an icily brilliant and overwhelmingly convincing attempt to tackle this shameful atrocity.

Aida Selmanajic (Jasna Djuricic) is a translator employed by the UN during discussions between Bosnian Muslim leaders and U.N officials. With her teacher husband, they sense that their military-age sons are in great danger of reprisals from the victorious Serb army. As she scurries around frantically trying to get information from the U.N commander, she takes the audience to the Serbs, to the U.N officials and to the civilians.

A remarkable film that deserves our attention.

100% – Rotten Tomatoes
8/10 – IMDB
“details somehow never blur in “Quo Vadis, Aida?,” which manages to hold background and foreground in unsettling balance for 102 taut, terrifying minutes.”
“Like so many war crimes throughout history, the Srebrenica massacre has been denied, downplayed and even defiantly rationalized in some quarters, even as the arrests and convictions of its engineers (including Mladić) and the discoveries of mass graves have told a different story.”
Film Review: ‘Quo Vadis, Aida?,’ Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Oscar entry, grippingly recounts a 1995 tragedy- The LA Times