Quo Vadis, Aida? () is a 2020 internationally co-produced war drama film written, produced and directed by Jasmila Žbanić, and based on Hasan Nuhanović's book Under the UN Flag. An international co-production of twelve production companies, the film was shown in the main competition section of the 77th Venice International Film Festival.
The film dramatizes the July 1995 Srebrenica massacre of over 8,300 Bosniak men and boys by the Bosnian Serb Army under the command of General Ratko Mladić (Boris Isaković) which was part of the wider Bosnian genocide in the Bosnian War. The plot focuses on Aida Selmanagić (Jasna Đuričić), a translator for the United Nations, who tries to juggle her professional obligations with attempts to save her husband (Izudin Bajrović) and two sons (Boris Ler and Dino Bajrović) from certain death.
Quo Vadis, Aida? earned a nomination for Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards, and received two BAFTA Award nominations. It also won four European Film Awards, including Best Film.
A direct sequel titled Quo Vadis, Aida? - The Missing Part, and starring Jasna Đuričić, is expected to be released in 2027.
Plot The film opens with former secondary school teacher Aida Selmanagić translating the negotiations between the Dutchbat commander Thom Karremans and the Mayor of Srebrenica. The nervous Mayor questions Karremans about Dutchbat's plans in case NATO's airplanes do not come to aid them against the advancing Army of Republika Srpska (VRS); Karremans convinces him that the planes would come. In Aida's apartment, her husband Nihad and sons Hamdija and Sejo watch the news report on the VRS finally capturing the besieged Srebrenica, despite the town being designated a United Nations Safe Area. The Selmanagićs flee their apartment and go to the United Nations base in Potočari. A column of thousands of civilians march towards the base. The base, however, cannot take them all in. Aida is torn between her translating job at the base and the attempts to find her family, whom she lost in the crowd. She finds Sejo inside the base, and he tells her that Nihad and Hamdija are stuck outside.
VRS general Ratko Mladić takes a celebratory walk through the streets of destroyed Srebrenica, while showing off for the cameras and claiming the town has been liberated. The Dutch require three representatives of civilians in the base who will accompany them to the negotiations with Mladić. Aida manages to convince Major Rob Franken to take Nihad, since there weren't enough volunteers within the base. Under cover of night, with Franken's consent, Aida smuggles Nihad and Hamdija into the base. Nihad, alongside Muharem and Ćamila, accompanies Dutchbat at the negotiations. Mladić promises to let civilians leave the Srebrenica enclave for the ARBiH-controlled Kladanj with buses that he himself will provide. Nihad and the Dutch believe him, while Ćamila is aware Mladić plans to execute them all.
While Karremans is still with Mladić, VRS troops arrive to the UN base and demand to be let inside. Karremans orders Franken to let them in via a handheld transceiver. VRS commander Joka mocks the Bosniak men inside the base, and humiliates the civilians. The buses arrive and the VRS orders to separate the men from the women and children. Aida, now aware of her family's fate, begs the Dutch to protect them but they refuse to defy orders. Tarik, a fellow UN translator, adds Aida's family to the list of the base personnel in an attempt to protect them; the Dutch, however, cross them out.
While Aida struggles to hide her family in one of the machines in the base—which is an abandoned battery factory—outside, Mladić films himself promising safety to a bus full of Bosniak women. The Dutch help the VRS separate the men from the women and children. Some of them are even distressed by the cries of separated families, but do not react. Aida's family is found and taken away. At the last minute, Franken offers Nihad protection for his participation in the UN negotiations. Aida and Nihad try to get Franken to protect one of their sons instead, but Franken remains adamant. Nihad then boards one of the trucks together with his sons, along with other men, as devasted Aida cries and screams after them. The truck arrives at Dom Kulture in Pilica and the men are grouped inside. Machine guns emerge from outside the building through its windows, opening fire on the men inside. The residents of Pilica drink their coffee around the building, while the sounds of gunfire pierce the air.
Time has passed. Aida returns to her family apartment in Srebrenica, which she fled from in the film's opening minutes. She meets with Vesna, a young Serb woman, and her little son, who now live there. Vesna returns her family photos; Aida tells her to move out as soon as possible. When Vesna expresses concern for Aida's safety, Aida replies that she has nothing left to lose. On the staircase, she passes and says hi to Joka, who doesn't recognize her; a second later she realizes that he is Vesna's husband and that he lives in her apartment. Aida goes to identify remains dug up from mass graves; in the mass of remains, she recognizes Nihad's and Sejo's by their clothing. She burst into tears. Some time later, Aida is shown working as an elementary school teacher. As she supervises the children's school play, the camera shows the perpetrators and victims of the massacre in the audience, including Joka and Vesna.
Cast
Production Writing Jasmila Žbanić and her husband Damir Ibrahimović found the basis for the film in Under the UN Flag, a book by the Srebrenica survivor Hasan Nuhanović who worked as a translator at the UN base in Potočari. They obtained the rights and started working on the screenplay with Nuhanović. Nuhanović left the project due to creative differences between him and Žbanić, who thought that changing the protagonist to a woman would allow the audience to connect with them better. Nuhanović also found the process of writing the screenplay too painful.
Thom Karremans refused to meet Žbanić, so she consulted with David Harland, former UN chief of civil affairs for Bosnia and Herzegovina, who investigated UN reports on what happened in Srebrenica. In the meantime, Ibrahimović found that it was impossible to fund the film solely from Bosnia and Herzegovina, so companies from Austria, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania and Turkey joined the production. However, the complexity of the production made the funding difficult. Žbanić and Ibrahimović then assembled all the producers at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival and held a meeting. Ibrahimović convinced them to start pre-production, claiming that the project would "die" otherwise. Despite running out of money halfway through production, Ibrahimović secured funds with a €500,000 loan from a bank.
In order to create a world for the film for viewers to enter, Žbanić analyzed authentic war videos on YouTube, as well as videos she received surreptitiously. She had access to seven hours of video footage of how Dutch soldiers lived and what life was like at the base. This helped her with the set design details and the spirit of the UN base. To Jutarnji list, Žbanić stated that, "for the Dutch, Bosnian Muslims were not human beings equal to them." However, she praised the Dutch actors, producers and foundation for their eagerness to participate in the film: "In any case, Srebrenica is a great trauma for the Netherlands. [...] That is the difference between us and real democratic societies. Their citizens know that this act was shameful and it does not occur to them to relativize or deny the event."
Casting Serbian actress Jasna Đuričić was the first choice for the role of the protagonist. Đuričić and Žbanić had previously worked together on For Those Who Can Tell No Tales (2013). When it came to the role of Ratko Mladić, Žbanić at one point considered not showing him at all, but filming him from behind. However, the idea was abandoned because the director did not want to mystify him or "give him some kind of aura that did not belong to him". Đuričić's husband Boris Isaković was hesitant to accept the role of Ratko Mladić due to the Mladić's perceived heroism among Bosnian Serbs, and was subjected to pressure in Serbia after accepting it.
Many of the film's extras survived horrors of war themselves. One day, filming was even interrupted after two women, who were Srebrenica survivors themselves, got upset at the sight of Isaković in the role of Mladić.
Filming Žbanić connected with the Mothers of Srebrenica and held theatre workshops for local children with the aim of encouraging coexistence; however, she and Ibrahimović believed that filming in the town of Srebrenica would be impossible, as it is situated in Republika Srpska and predominantly populated by Serbs. Mladen Grujičić, the mayor of Srebrenica at the time, even denied the genocide and had never visited the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial.
Filming began in July 2019 in the Herzegovinian towns of Mostar and Stolac. The production struggled to secure military equipment for the filming, as Bosnian Serb officials denied their requests. An unnamed friend of Ibrahimović pulled some strings with an unnamed minister and got two tanks for the filming. The filming was finished in September 2019.
Release The film had its world premiere at the 77th Venice International Film Festival on 3 September 2020. It was also screened at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival on 13 September 2020. On 10 October 2020, the film had its Bosnian-Herzegovinian premiere at the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial. In February 2021, Super LTD acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film. It was released in the United States through virtual cinema on 5 March 2021, followed by video on demand on 15 March 2021.
Historical accuracy The Nuhanović family—Nasiha and Ibro, and their sons Hasan and Muhamed—served as the basis for the film's Selmanagić family. The role of the UN translator was, however, shifted from the son Hasan Nuhanović to the matriarch Aida Selmanagić. Hasan, just like Aida, unsuccessfully attempted to get the Dutch to protect his family. Ibro Nuhanović did go to negotiate with Ratko Mladić, just like Nihad Selmanagić. The characters of Ćamila and Muharem were based on the real-life people Ćamila Omanović and Nesib Mandžić. Unlike the character of Ćamila, who was groped by a Serb soldier while searched for weapons before entering the building to negotiate, the real-life Ćamila Omanović was allowed to enter the building without being searched at all.
The negotiations scene was a recreation of the documentary footage: Ćamila did reveal that she had two children and a grandchild, to which Mladić expressed surprise that she is already a grandmother at her age, and she did identify one of Mladić's men as her former classmate. Ćamila's son Đermin Omanović revealed that Ćamila heard another one of her Serb former classmates threatening with roasting "children on a spit". Distressed, Ćamila unsuccessfully attempted suicide at one point. She later urged Đermin and Đermin's sister to separate from her, because she feared they would indeed get skewered on a spit if seen with her. When convoys started leaving the UN base for Tuzla, she managed to get on board with her children and grandchild. Đermin, who was 14 years old at the time, testified that she jumped out of the truck as soon as it departed, because she did not want to risk her children's lives. Đermin and his sister arrived to Kladanj, while Ćamila managed to get to Tuzla after all. Later, she testified at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), and died in 2007 from a heart attack. Nesib Mandžić, just like Muharem in the film, was told by Mladić that he held the destiny of his people in his hands.