Bosnian War. In July '95, the Serb forces enter the UN safe zone of Srebrenica, annexing it. Aida, an interpreter for the UN, is among the 25,000 Bosniak people who flee towards the UN Dutchbat base, hoping they will be safe there. The Dutch Colonel Thom Karremans is overwhelmed by the situation, while NATO is hesitant at carrying out air strikes against the Serb military. As war criminal Ratko Mladić orders the Serb forces to separate the men from the women, Aida tries to protect her husband Nihad and her two sons Hamdija and Sejo by appealing to Karremans to put them on the list of the UN staff, but this fails. The military of the Republika Srpska buses all the Bosniak women out of the area, while Aida's husband and sons are among the numerous Bosniak men who are massacred. Years later, Aida visits her old apartment in Srebrenica, where one Serb soldier now lives there. She identifies the remains of her family at an exhumation site.
There are right ways and wrong ways to make movies about war crimes. And "Quo Vadis, Aida?" by director Jasmila Zbanic, about the Srebrenica massacre and the Bosnian genocide, is one of those movies that did it the right way. There are several moments where the storyline could have fallen into preachy ethno-accusations or one-dimensional banality—but surprisingly, Zbanic skilfully avoided all of the traps and delivered a concise, restrained, objective and wise film. The said historic event is gripping and dramatic all by itself, and it is a wonder why it was so rarely put on film. Throughout the entire film, the viewers will feel a cold shudder: everything is just hinted at, shown indirectly, but it is terribly gruesome watching all the events unfolding, since one knows what avaits at the end. By its structure, the movie is quite similar to Wajda's "Katyn", as well as in its theme of consequences of territorial nationalism and irredentism.
In one memorable sequence, Serb soldier Joka (Emir Hadzihafizbegovic) arrives with his unit at the UN headquarters and demands to go inside, ostensibly to check if there are soldiers among the civilians hiding inside. At first, the Dutch peacekeepers refuse to allow them in, but their boss, Colonel Karremans, orders them to let them in, displaying indifference and naivety. As Joka's soldiers enter the compound, walking through thousands of civilians inside, he shouts: "If I find a single bullet among you, you are all doomed! Understand?", upon which the crowd just has to answer with: "Yes". General Ratko Mladic feigns that he is worried about all the people, giving chocolate bars to kids in front of the cameras, and asking about the well being of women on the bus ("I wish you a safe journey! I am giving you life!"), while at the same time preparing the largest mass murder of the war behind their backs. Other chaotic moments stand out—a couple is forcefully separated by the Serb forces; a Bosniak man disguises himself as a woman to escape with them; a Serb soldier takes a UN helmet and puts it on his head. Some minor flaws (the actor playing Mladic does not resemble him; the flashback to Aida's memory of dancing at a night bar seems pointless) fall in the background, and the major virtues take the lead: a strong film, with a devastating, emotional ending.
Grade:+++
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