[D66] [JD: 133] Quo Vadis, Aida? movie review (2021) | Roger Ebert

[R.O.]

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  Quo Vadis, Aida? movie review (2021) | Roger Ebert

Brian Tallerico
5-6 minutes
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Jasmila Zbanic’s “Quo Vadis, Aida?” is a razor-sharp incrimination of
failed foreign policies from around the world embedded in a deeply
humanist and moving character study of the kind of person that these
policies leave behind. It’s a very specific story of war crimes in 1995,
but it feels also like a modern commentary on how often foreign policy
and U.N. intervention fails to see the human lives caught up in their
decision making, and so often in their inability to make those tough
decisions quickly and empathetically. Taut and intense, this is the kind
of film that a critic hopes finds a broad enough audience to provoke
conversation and insight about how we fix these broken systems. It truly
feels like Zbanic’s work here could effect change if seen by the right
people.

Aida (a fantastic Jasna Djuricic) is a translator for the UN in the town
of Srebenica in Bosnia in 1995 in this true story. At that time, a war
between the Serbians and Bosnians had led to incredible bloodshed but
the Serbians were at a point wherein they overtook Srebenica, leading
the UN soldiers and locals there on their heels when it comes to what
happens next. As the gun-toting Serbians approached Srebenica, thousands
of local Bosnians tried to enter a UN base camp there, with only a few
hundred let in before the gates were closed, leaving so many men, women,
and children outside, wondering what to do next or where to go when the
only place they’ve been told would be safe won’t let them in.

With inside knowledge of how negotiations and planning (or lack thereof)
are going between the UN leaders and Serbian army are going, Aida senses
that everything is about to get much worse. Tension is rising in the
camp from the beginning, as there are no facilities or rations for the
people who have come there for safety, and Aida struggles at first to
get her husband and son from one side of the gate to the other, even
knowing that nothing is fixed when she does. “Quo Vadis, Aida?” is one
of the best films ever made regarding shifts in power, and how this kind
of nightmare often unfolds with slow, deliberate actions instead of the
standard quick pace of action filmmaking. Aida can see how increasingly
dangerous the world around her is becoming, but bureaucracy and
confusion keep halting any efforts to stop it.

One of Zbanic’s smartest decisions is to regularly center Aida’s POV
exclusively, keeping us invested in her decisions and actions. Other
than an extended negotiation with the Serbian army leader with a few
locals, including Aida’s husband, Zbanic stays alongside Aida for most
of the films’ runtime. Meetings that could determine the fate of her
family take place behind closed doors, and we can feel Aida’s rising
panic and concern, knowing in her heart that the UN workers to whom she
has been so loyal will likely not do enough to save her family. Zbanic’s
film is clearly about how often policy and inaction can lead to tragedy
on an individual level, but she makes that point without feeling
didactic about the messages in her movie. She allows them to emerge from
story and character, resulting in a film that moves instead of
manipulates. As her situation feels more and more desperate, we get more
and more invested in Aida’s fate and that of her family.

Despite Aida’s unique situation in that being a translator gives her
access, there’s also a sense of a broader canvas at work in this story
that’s essential to its success. There are several shots of dozens of
human beings filling the frame, either in the base or waiting outside
for an answer about their fate. All of them are being let down by
policies that may have given a warlord an ultimatum but then did nothing
when he ignored it, and now they are stuck in the middle, between a
conquering enemy and a supposed ally who has no idea what to do next.
There are Aidas all over the world—people who can see all sides of the
situation, and people who realize there’s no one there to stop the
bloodshed.

This is a film about almost unimaginable war crimes—the murder of
thousands of innocent men—but it places that international story in a
deeply human context. We often read about these dark chapters in history
and the kind of horror that took place in Srebenica can be hard to
really wrap you brain around. “Quo Vadis, Aida?” is daring enough to not
only ask how this kind of thing happens, but to interrogate how easily
we move on from these kind of war crimes, going back to daily life in
the same places where so many ended.

/Opening at the Angelika Film Center today, March 5^th , and on VOD on
March 15^th.  /

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