QUO VADIS, AIDA? begins and ends with a close up of Aida, many years apart, her face and hair showing the toll of her journey through the years of the Serbia Bosnia war. These portraits bookend a journey of genocide and frightful frustration, of fierce determination coupled with utter futility.

Aida is a school teacher employed by the UN as an interpreter in east Bosnian town of Srebrenica at the end of the Bosnian war, July 11, 1995.

Negotiations regarding protections are being lost in translation.

Despite Srebrenica being declared a UN safe zone for civilians and citizens, when Bosnian Serb forces overrun the town in July 1995, the outgunned UN troops who requested help from the UN in New York are told those authorized to grant the request are on vacation. For them it is utter frustration. For the population it means absolute annihilation.

Boasting magnificent moustaches but no military might, the UN commanders on the ground are impotent as peace keepers, illustrative of how the UN as a supranational body has obviously passed the point of diminishing returns. The compound harbouring citizens declared enemies of the state by the brutal and bullying Serbs becomes a sales yard for these citizens, lambs awaiting slaughter by the abattoir regime with their policy of ethnic cleansing.

Desperate to secure her husband and two sons safety, Aida implores her employers to grant them documentation, a request denied. One is instantly reminded of translators hung out to dry after Australia’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Written and directed by Sarajevo born Jasmila Zbanic, QUO VADIS, AIDA? is a powerful and harrowing film, anchored by an astonishing central performance by Jasna Djuricic as Aida. Aspects of the film may remind audiences of Sophie’s Choice.

QUO VADIS, AIDA? – the title is a question. Where to? Though the film is about desperation and despair, it is also hopeful. The systematic execution of over 8,000 residents is a huge trauma for all Bosnians. More than 25 years later, 1700 people are still missing. Closure is necessary for proper healing but openness is just as important. Aida profession as a teacher offers some hope that future generations will be educated in more civil ways to deal with conflict and that the porous borders of partition will be destined for the dustbin of history.

Official trailer (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czOkhjRpuds

Richard Cotter