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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <a
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href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/quo-vadis-aida-movie-review-2021">rogerebert.com</a>
<h1 class="reader-title">Quo Vadis, Aida? movie review (2021) |
Roger Ebert</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">Brian Tallerico</div>
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<div class="reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">5-6 minutes</div>
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<p>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. </p>
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<p>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. </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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. </p>
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<p>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. </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p><em>Opening at the Angelika Film Center today, March 5<sup>th</sup>,
and on VOD on March 15<sup>th. </sup></em></p>
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