Quo Vadis, Aida? Jasmila Žbanić’s Oscar-Nominated Drama

Bosnian filmmaker–now Oscar-nominated–tells the story of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide with “female sensibility”

Quo Vadis, Aida? a powerful internationally producted war movie, was written, produced and directed by Jasmila Žbanić, and based on Hasan Nuhanović’s book, Under the UN Flag.

An international co-production of twelve production companies, the film was shown in the main competition of the 2020 Venice Film Fest.

The film dramatizes the July 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,372 Bosniak men and boys by the Bosnian Serb Army under the command of General Ratko Mladić (Boris Isaković), which was part of the wider Bosnian genocide in the Bosnian War.

The plot focuses on a strong, middle-aged woman, Aida Selmanagić (Jasna Đuričić), a translator for the United Nations, as she painfully tries to juggle her professional obligations with her domestic duties, incredibly heroic and dangerous attempts to save her husband (Izudin Bajrović) and two sons (Boris Ler and Dino Bajrović) from certain death.

Jasmila Žbanić knew that a film should be made about the 1995 Srebrenica Massacre — the genocide of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys by Serbian armed forces that took place in her home of Bosnia while under the supposed protection of the United Nations.

She had hoped that she wouldn’t be the one behind the camera, but 20 years on from the shocking tragedy, no film had emerged.

“I talked with my crew, with my producers and my friends,” she recalls. “And we thought, ok, nobody’s making this film. Let’s try to do it.”

Žbanić, who was just a teenager when the war broke out in Bosnia in 1992, says that her team knew making a film about genocide would be “very difficult” and was warned by many about the complexities.

“But we had such a passion to tell the story, to let people know what happened and this betrayal of the United Nations, and this moment where people are living an absolutely normal life and then this suddenly turns in the opposite direction like you couldn’t imagine,” she says.

Quo Vadis, Aida?–five years in the making–is a powerful drama that centers on a Bosnian mother and teacher, Aida, caught in the middle of the tragedy.  Aida works for the U.N. as a translator at a temporary shelter for thousands of refugees, while desperately trying to protect her husband and sons from the impending horror.

Since its first bowing at the 2020 Venice Film Fest, the film has received major acclaim, and is now nominated for both the Oscars (for best international feature) and BAFTA awards (for best film not in the English language, and best director).

To tell such a complex story, which had to be very accurate and authentic while also acknowledging some dramatic license, the director turned to the local Bosnian women. It was the women, she says, who exhibited the most resilience, despite having their families torn apart and now living alongside the perpetrators on the other side.

“The women of Srebrenica are my inspiration,” she says. “Even after this genocide happened, they were always promoting peace, and never asked for revenge or had words of hatred.”

“How you can survive, knowing who killed your family and still want to live together and still want to make this country function? So I told this story from a female perspective, with a female sensibility towards the war. Because I don’t find anything spectacular in war. For me, it’s the banality of evil.”

Last Sequence: Spoiler Alert

The conclusion of this harrowing tale is truly heart-breaking.

Aida returns to her family apartment in Srebrenica, from which she had fled in the film’s opening minutes.

There, she meets Vesna, a young Serb woman, and her little son, who now live in her place. When Vesna expresses concern for Aida’s safety, Aida replies that she has nothing left to lose.

Later on, Aida goes to identify remains dug up from mass graves. In the mass of remains, she recognizes her boys, Nihad and Sejo, by their clothing.

In the very last scene, Aida is shown working as an elementary school teacher. While supervising the children’s school play, the camera shows the perpetrators and victims of the massacre in the audience, including Joka and Vesna.