Quo vadis, Aida?

Jasmila Žbanić shows in this moving drama—a hit at the Venice Festival—one of the darkest pages in modern European history: the Srebrenica massacre. The main character is a translator (Jasna Duričić), someone who, between lost pages, is trying to unite a world on its way to annihilation. Instead of the classic male optics of war, we see the less common view of women: the main protagonist and the Bosnian director, who was born in Sarajevo. This is a film that will sear itself into the mind, cut to the quick, and claw at the heart. It does this not through shock therapy, but subtly, thanks to a well-thought-out structure, sensational directing (this is Žbanić’s best film since her Berlin success, Grbavica), and brilliant editing by Jarosław Kamiński. This film should be shown in schools, including in Poland, as a warning and as a humanistic lesson in contemporary history. It is worth noting that Quo Vadis, Aida? is a Polish co-production: Ewa Puszczyńska was a co-producer (Ida, Cold War), Małgorzata Karpiuk was the costume designer, and Antoni Komasa-Łazarkiewicz was responsible for the music.