QUO VADIS, AIDA?

Bosnia and Herzogovina, 2020, 101 minutes, Colour.

Jasna Djuricic, Boris Isakovic.

Directed by Jasmila Sbanic. 

A return to the Balkans of 25 years ago, the vicious wars, Bosnians and Serbs, Muslims and Orthodox, and the tragedy and massacre of its men citizens in Srebrenica. This devastating story is worth telling, remembering, telling again.

The writer and director of this film is Jasmila Sbanic who in 2006 strongly impacted audiences by her re-creation of the siege of Sarajevo, Gbavica. Interestingly, she won the Ecumenical Award at Berlin in 2006 – and the present film won the SIGNIS Award (World Association of Catholic Communication) in Venice 2020.

The Aida of the title is a middle-aged woman, (a powerfully persuasive performance by Jasna Djuricic), a local schoolteacher, working as a translator for the United Nations, a squad from the Netherlands. Most of the action takes place on July 11, 1995, a frantic day – and the film movingly immerses the audience in the Srebrenica experience. The Serb forces have occupied the town, thousands fleeing to the United Nations centre, some able to get into the compound, thousands stranded outside. The Dutch UN officers are trying to deal with the situation but not getting cooperation from headquarters.

We view all these events through Aidda’s eyes, her concerns, compassion, translations, negotiating with the UN, concerned about her husband and two sons outside the compound. She will be desperate all day to get them on the buses which will transfer the townspeople to a safer destination.

There is a major episode when three of the locals are volunteered by the UN to go to negotiate with military leader, General Mladic (Boris Isakovic, interestingly the real-life husband of Jasna Djuricic). For audiences who are unaware of Mladik’s role in the wars and in the atrocities and his later arrest and trial in Rotterdam, life sentence, there will be suspense in watching his dealings with his soldiers, always at the ready, the propaganda filming, his cajoling words and sending in some food and bringing in the transport buses. For audiences who know what Mladic did and the consequences, will watch, continually appalled.

The tension builds during the day, no help from UN headquarters, the Dutch leaders abiding by the rules, trying to prevent chaos, allowing the Serb military, armed, to enter the compound to check whether the men have weapons. And, in the meantime, Aida’s trying to hide her family, and get them the on the official list for bus transportation out.

At times, the re-creation is so effective that it looks like actual newsreel footage. And it doesn’t shy away from the difficulties for the crowded refugees, hunger, lack of water, although up seen of pathos with a woman washing clothes and a bucket, absence of toilets, the birth of a baby, continued uncertainty and fear.

And the film leads inexorably to the fate of the massacred men, the director able to generate the tension, the uncertainties facing of the men, separated from the wormen and children, intimating rather than graphically showing the cruelty of the massacre.

There is a postscript to the film. Year have passed. Aida returns to Srebrenica to teach, finds her house occupied by Serbs, joins the movement to find the bodies of the murdered men, finally the excavations and the laying out of the skeletal bones and clothes.

This is a harrowing film experience. However, despite the dire tragic experiences, the film ends with looking to the future, not without hope.

1. The title? The origins of Quo Vadis? Christ going to Rome to suffer? The question to Aida?
2. Audience knowledge of 1995, the Balkan wars, the years, the fate of Bosnia and Sarajevo, the Bosnian Serbs, the attack, cruelty and massacres, Srebrenica, the death of the men in the aftermath? The world court and the trials of the Bosnian leaders? Sentences?
3. The work of the director, her film on Sarajevo, her dramatising Srebrenica?
4. July 11, 1995, a long day, a long night, the aftermath? The local people taking refuge with the United Nations, the compound and its limitations, the thousands outside the gates, uncertainties, the, food and water, toilets, degrading the survivors?
5. The locations, the re-creations of the day, the United Nations centre, the bombed town, inside the centre, the space in the yard, offices, corridors? The buses? Travel? The neighbouring town, the men, in the hall, the rifles and their deaths? The aftermath, the bodies laid out, the women identifying their loved ones?
6. The role of the United Nations, the attempts to keep peace, safe zone, to help local inhabitants? The commander, his contacting headquarters, getting nowhere? The other officers and soldiers, the guards at the gate? Interpreting regulations literally? Not allowing more people in, even Aida’s family, to prevent riots? The personalities of the UN officials, the dismay at the situation?
7. Aida, age and experience, local teacher, her husband as principal, her sons and their age, the flashback to the music and the celebrations? Her work as translator? Her contact with people? Her badge and freedom of movement? Her husband, volunteering him for the negotiations with Mladic? Wanting to get her sons inside? Eventually getting in, hiding them, the older son and his fears, reaction against his mother? Trying to get them on the list for safe passage? On, then off? Finally getting them on the vehicle?
8. The details of the people waiting, the woman washing in the bucket, the lack of toilet facilities, the birth sequence? Mladic and his supplying the bread and tossing it to the people? His getting the buses, the separation of men from women and children, the boarding of the buses, the men and their vehicles? The final truck with Aida’s family?
9. The scene of General Mladic, imperious in manner, the soldiers with arms, ready to shoot, the ruined village, taking down the street sign, taking down the flag, his being filmed all the time for propaganda purposes? The suggestion for negotiation, the Dutch officials and their getting two men in the woman, the treatment on arrival, search for weapons, sexist searching of the woman, eventually inside, humiliated, interventions? The local translator?
10. The situation becoming desperate, Aida and her hurrying about, trying to help, the translation, her appeals to the authorities, their taking a hard-line? The futile phone calls to headquarters?
11. The Serbian officer, armed, one of Aida’s students in the group, changing greetings, yet his being on the other side? Discussion about his entering the compound, international regulations, his going in, searching the men?
12. The abandonment of the camp, the Dutch moving out, Aida and her family?
13. The aftermath, Aida and her return to the town, to teach, going to her house, the Serb occupation, the woman and coffee and cake, providing the photos, Aida wanting her out?
14. The excavations, laying out of the bones and clothing, the women searching for their loved ones? Aida and her grief?
15. Yet the hopeful ending, her teaching, the children, performing and dancing, the applause, the Serbs who had persecuted in the past in the audience, Aida as Bosnian Muslim?