Directed by: Jasmila Žbanić
Distributed by: Super LTD
Written by Raúl Mendoza
99/100
As with all my writing, I love to pull the curtain back when it comes to my personal life as I think it allows the reader to connect with me more. It brings us together closer and intertwines our cinema journey as we share our experiences with the films I write about. When I was still in my undergrad and hadn’t completely switched over to my film program I was hopping around a couple of other departments. One of those departments was History and I selected it as my minor while my major was in Mass Communications. During my short time as a History minor, I concentrated specifically on the era of the Cold War and detailed my studies around Eastern Europe. I always found such a profound interest in Eastern Europe, specifically The Balkans and their troubles that only grew from World War II to the fall of the Soviet Union. Of course, at this time I was really into film already so this academic interest in Eastern Europe started to bleed into my cinema journey, so I started to look into movies from this region. Sadly, as is the case a lot of distribution was non-existent for these films to reach the United States. Things changed from then to now and I ended up choosing a different career path, but my vast interest in Eastern Europe stayed the same, so when nominations for the 93rd Academy Awards came around, “Quo Vadis, Aida?” directed by Jasmila Žbanić caught my eye for its subject matter on the Srebrenica Massacre.
“Quo Vadis, Aida?” written, produced, and directed by Bosnian film director, Jasmila Žbanić, examines the events of the Srebrenica Massacre where more than 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys were murdered by the Bosnian Serb Army of Republika Srpska, which at the time in 1995 was under the command of Ratko Mladić. The film begins in the UN’s designated safe zone inside of Srebrenica where we follow mother and interpreter, Aida Selmanagić (Jasna Đuričić) as she fights for the survival of her family during this genocide. The film made its premiere at the 77th Venice International Film Festival and it went on to be nominated for Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards. It won Best Film, Best Actress, and Best Director, and was also nominated for Best Screenwriter and Best University Film. A year later it went on to win the European Film Academy’s Lux Award which is awarded to films that raise awareness on socio-political issues and encourage the distribution of European films in the EU and the rest of the world.
Jasmila Žbanić’s “Quo Vadis, Aida?” works with such precision as it patiently builds to its harrowing third act. For those who know the history, you can’t avoid knowing how this film will roll out but Žbanić uses all her runtime to make sure the viewer never looks away. The film stays in mostly medium close to close-ups and the only time we go to a wide shot is to look at the sea of people trying to seek refuge. This keeps the film feeling claustrophobic while keeping the frame relatively tight. Aida fights through every obstacle she faces to keep her family safe but as much as she tries she cannot ultimately stop Ratko’s mission to ethnically cleanse Bosnia. There’s not a lot of films that left me numb other than Elem Klimov’s “Come and See,” but Jasmila Žbanić’s “Quo Vadis, Aida?” did that. If I ever get the chance to teach a cinema course in my life, this would be a necessary viewing as we must make sure stories like these are not forgotten.
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