Quo Vadis, Aida? Directed by Jasmila Zbanic, 2020

The feature film Quo Vadis, Aida?, (which translates to Where Are You Going, Aida?) is a 2020 dramatic portrayal of the events leading up to and of the Srebrenica massacre of 1995, in Bosnia. The story is told from the point of view of Aida (played by Jasna Djuricic), a mother and schoolteacher who acts as a translator for the UN officials and the Dutch Batallion protecting the Bosniak enclave at Srebrenica. The movie tracks the rising tensions and political moves carried out by the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) leading up to the concentrated effort of ethnic cleansing that took place in Srebrenica in July, 1995.

The film shows how the bureaucratic efforts of the UN delegates stationed at the Srebrenica enclave were poorly executed and how Serbian officials organised the killing of an estimated 8,000 Bosniak boys and men. This brings up questions about complicity and implication, as well as micro- , meso-, and macro-level organisation of genocide. Aida’s unique position as a translator enables the film to pay attention to the blurring of victim and perpetrator lines during genocide—she uses her higher position to afford better levels of security and protection for herself and her family than other Bosniaks in the enclave, but ultimately falls prey to extreme victimhood when she still loses her sons and husband to the cleansing efforts of the VRS, comprised predominantly by Bosnian Serbs. Additionally, the movie shows how the ineffectiveness of Dutch officials in the enclave can be interpreted as a form of complicity in the Bosniaks’ ultimate demise.

Another feature of the film which is interesting for studies of perpetration is the portrayal of General Ratko Mladić (played by Boris Isakovic), who led the Serbian army during the Yugoslav wars. Quo Vadis, Aida? shows how Mladić used media tactics to his advantage during his ethnic cleansing campaign. In July 1995, Mladić was filmed by Serbian television journalist Petrović and other media journalists. He ordered filming of his soldiers as they handed out bread and water to the Bosniak refugees at the Srebrenica enclave, and candy to the children, then calmly explaining that they were bringing buses to transport the refugees to another enclave (Wagner, 44). This façade gave the Bosniaks a false sense of security, which Mladić and the Serbian army used to transport placated Bosniaks to the killing centres and mass graves they had prepared in order to carry out their ethnic cleansing campaign. The portrayal of Mladić, which illuminates this façade, is an important addition to the repertoire of perpetrator representations, and the performances were well received, earning the film a nomination for an Oscar in the category of Best International Feature Film.

Submitted by Flora Lehmann

Additional Works Cited

Wagner, Sarah. “The Fall of Srebrenica.” In To Know Where He Lies: DNA Technology and the

Search for Srebrenica’s Missing. University of California Press, 2008, pp. 21-57.

Quo Vadis, Aida? Directed by Jasmila Zbanic, 2020