Quo Vadis Aida? |
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Inspired by true events writer/director Jasmila Žbanić's gripping Oscar-nominated thriller tells the story of a United Nations translator attempting to save the lives of her family whilst pandemonium and escalating conflict rages around them.
Bosnia July 1995. Middle-aged Aida (Jasna Ðuričić) is an English teacher in the small mountain town of Srebrenica. When the Serbian army ignores a formal UN ultimatum and begins a series of round-ups and brazen shellings Aida and her family find themselves among over 30000 besieged citizens attempting to shelter in a UN peacekeeper-operated military base on the outskirts of town designed to house only a few thousand. Aida's skills as a translator enable her to eventually bargain her husband and two sons inside literally under the wire.
There within the so-called safe zone the harried and frantic Aida becomes party to the negotiations and to crucial information. While the support the UN can provide is crumbling the situation intensifies with the arrival of vainglorious army commander Ratko Mladić (Boris Isaković) accompanied by his own camera crew. What is at the horizon for Aida's family and people-rescue or death? Which moves should she make?
Without depicting anything more explicit than a slap in the face Žbanić -herself a survivor of the war - masterfully delivers a film of universal urgency and power: a heart-rending story of courage and resilience in the face of man's terrible capabilities; of those who knew what was happening and those who looked away. As fierce and spellbinding as its lead performance QUO VADIS AIDA? is a resonant testament to the indomitable human spirit. It's unforgettable cinema.
OFFICIAL TRAILER
REVIEWS
TOMATOMETER 100%
AUDIENCE SCORE 89%
Astonishingly fine - you must see this film! Deeply moving and compelling this is a mesmerising truly powerful and important drama with one of the great - yet largely unsung - female performances in recent cinema. Unforgettable.
David StrattonTHE AUSTRALIAN
Reviewed by SANDRA HALL The Age
This is clearly a film that Bosnian writerdirector Jasmila Zbanic felt compelled to make. The proof is written on every line of the remarkable face of her star Jasna Duricic. Duricic's Aida is an interpreter for the UN in the last stages of the Bosnian war knowing more than her neighbours when the Serbian troops march into Srebrenica her hometown led by infamous general Ratko Mladic.
Her gimlet-eyed gaze the set of her mouth and the speed of her responses all speak of her determination to save her family from the horrors to come. It's a performance as taut as a bow string.
Aida's story begins as the town is evacuated . We watch her husband and two grown-up sons hastily pack and head for the UN base where she's waiting for them. But they wind up among the thousands massed outside its barriers because the base is filled to capacity.
According to Zbanic the film has been years in the making its production hampered by Bosnia's lack of a film industry and the opposition of right-wing politicians.
But her work's rocky trip to the screen has done nothing to dilute its power. Events on screen achieve an extraordinary momentum fuelled by the passion of Zbanic's script. Aida's job puts her in the middle of the so-called negotiations between Mladic (Boris Isakovic) and the base's Dutch commander Colonel Karremans (Johan Heldenbergh).
Karremans is powerless abandoned by his bosses at the UN in New York without instructions or resources. The base is running out of food water and medical supplies for those inside its compound let alone for those clamouring at its gates. Yet he's not exactly a sympathetic figure . His frustration is translated into disdain for those he's charged with protecting and his soldiers remain aloof while Mladic's swaggering bully boys take pleasure in mocking the townspeople.
The film captures the appalling intimacy of a war fought in the streets of a town where disparate ethnic groups once lived in relative harmony. Even after the shooting has stopped the film doesn't let up. You're left with the reminder that Srebrenica's survivors are still having to live side by side with their tormentors. It's not a film to enjoy. It's so harrowing that you have to remind yourself to breathe. But you won't forget it which is exactly the way Zbanic wants it.
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