OVP: Quo Vadis, Aida? (2020)

Film: Quo Vadis, Aida? (2020)

Stars: Jasna Duricic, Izudin Bajrovic, Boris Isakovic, Johan Heldenbergh

Director: Jasmila Zbanic

Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best International Feature Film-Bosnia & Herzegovina)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 5/5 stars

We are continuing our look at the 2020-21 Oscar nominees, specifically focusing on five films that I saw post-nomination announcement (and of course, as a result, have not had a review on the blog yet).  Today we are profiling another of the International Feature film contenders, and a movie that briefly looked like it might be a contender for a win.  Going into the nominations, only two films (this one and Another Round) were considered "locks" for a nomination, and some thought that the precursor reception the latter film had made was muted enough an upset could come about.  After that film's surprise Best Director citation, though, it does appear that it's probably going to win.  But we are completists here, and thus we're going to catch Quo Vadis regardless, and thank god we are, because man is this a good movie.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie takes place in 1995, during the height of the Bosnian War, where the town of Srebrenica is under siege.  Aida (Selmanagic) is a frazzled local translator working with the United Nations who is also aware of what is about to transpire-there is deep concern that Dutch Colonel Thom Karremans (Heldenbergh) is not up-to-the-snuff of protecting the thousands of Bosnian refugees that flee to the UN "safe space," and as a result Aida is concerned about the safety of her husband and two adult sons.  This is warranted when General Ratko Mladic (Isakovic) enters the compound, and convinces Karremans to relinquish the Bosnian refugees, letting only UN personnel flee the compound, and in the process thousands of people formerly under the UN's protection are brought back to Mladic.  While Aida is safe due to her status as a translator, Karremans refuses to help her family, despite it being relatively easy to do so, because he is a stickler for procedure.  As a result, while Aida is able to safely leave, her sons & husband are brought to a room where they are shot, amongst thousands of other men & boys.  The film ends with Aida recovering her family's bodies, and trying to reclaim her old apartment, still seeing other figures who helped perpetrate the crimes going free amidst the townspeople who all wish to forget rather than confront their involvement in the atrocities.

The film is inspired by true events.  Both Mladic and Karremans were tried for war crimes, though only the former successfully, and over 6000 men-and-boys were murdered as part of the occupation of Srebrenica, one of the worst genocides in modern history.  The movie's best attributes, though, don't come from either of these two men, but instead at the futility & cruelty of war & process.  The film's focus on Aida, and her struggle to save her family, shows how heartless the actions of men bound by a sense-of-fairness can be.  As we continue on, we understand that Aida won't be successful, but we also understand that she's not successful because of Karremans.  Because she's right-he could hide these three men in with the rest of the United Nations employees with little issue.  Most of the buses had left, and no one would've been the wiser.  His behavior, and his inability to stop the rest of the genocide was still unforgivable, but she suffered needlessly, as her family had an out, one that Karremans (the character) refuses to take.

Quo Vadis is extraordinary because it shows how cruel fate can be in that regard.  Duricic's performance, a powerhouse, captures that hatred in the film's final chapter, when we see some of the men who allowed the crimes still in the city Aida she once lived in with her sons, and the way that the most horrifying part of her life isn't just the loss, but that she was forced to live alongside those who forgot the atrocities that destroyed her for decades to come.  All war is hell, but Quo Vadis Aida rises above this cliche not by showing us a more violent image than we've seen before, but instead showing how the bureaucracy of war can lead to inhumanity, and how personal death can be, particularly when it is needless.