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Quo Vadis, Aida?

Here's a gripping, rage-inducing film about a UN translator during the Bosnian War in 1995. It starts with Aida (played by Jasna Djuricic) sitting on a couch, looking at three men. Nothing is said, and we don't find out who they are until they're shown evacuating their home in Srebrenica. Before this, the die is cast with a great scene of the mayor of the city (Ermin Bravo) pleading with the UN representative, Colonel Karremans (Johan Heldenbergh) to protect his citizens. Aida translates the Colonel as he promises air strikes on Bosnian-Serb posts if they continue their attacks.

The resulting horror-farce has been well documented historically but this film puts a human face to the Srebrenica massacre. The director, Jasmila Zbanic, is from Sarajevo and grew up amidst the Balkan splintering, post-Tito. She keeps a very steady hand on the rudder, where it might be forgiven were she to go all revenge-berko. The docu-drama style keeps the tension levels peaking, and the frustration, turning to panic, felt by Aida is palpable.

Scenes of refugee squalor are intercut with the those of the Dutch UN soldiers attempting to negotiate with Mladic for some sort of resolution. The creeping sense of helplessness is well conveyed, and the focus on Aida and her family as a microcosm of the atrocity is an apt way to personalise the massacre. The whole film is a difficult watching experience but the climax is a real kick in the guts.

Quo Vadis, Aida? is an important film, not entertaining of course, but required viewing, especially by people who think this shit couldn't have happened so recently. It runs at the UWA Somerville Auditorium from Jan 10-16 as part of the Perth Festival.

See also:

Michael Winterbottom's Welcome to Sarajevo (1997) is fantastic, as is No Man's Land (2001), directed by Danis Tanović.

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