Quo Vadis, Aida? (2021)

Directed by Jasmila Žbanić. Starring Jasna Đuričić, Johan Heldenbergh, Izudin Bajrović, Boris Isaković, Raymond Thiry, Reinout Bussemaker, Boris Ler, Dino Bajrović, Jelena Kordić-Kuret, Juda Goslinga, Ermin Bravo.

Trenchant, heartbreaking document of institutional impotence, bureaucratic disregard, and the callous evil that can spread like a cancer under such conditions. The Bosnian War was covered on a world stage, yet it was considered too complex for in-depth analysis at the time, and was largely greeted by international inaction, exemplified most clearly by the failures of the UN to intervene and back up their feeble threats. Quo Vadis, Aida? (which translates as “Where Are You Going, Aida?”) does what all effective depictions of genocide must do: put human faces onto numbers. No face is more human (and frustrated, desperate, panicked, devastated…) than Aida’s (Đuričić), a translator trying to save her family by facilitating communication between UN forces and the Bosnian Serb Army on the eve of the Srebrenica massacre. The chaos, fear, and inevitable tragedy of the situation should have made the film almost unbearable to watch, but writer/director/co-producer Žbanić enriches the unfolding nightmare with so much tension and suspense, and Đuričić develops her humanist rooting interest into a such a compassionate and deeply-felt individual, that it becomes too riveting to look away. Falters with the ambiguous ending, which becomes so elusive as to possibly suggest a measure of discordant redemption, but the filmmakers may have at least intended it to be interpreted differently. Premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2020.

89/100