The film dramatizes the events of the Srebrenica massacre, during which Serbian troops sent Bosniak men and boys to death in July 1995 led by Serbian convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić. Named for its protagonist, Quo Vadis, Aida? exposes the events through the eyes of a mother named Aida, a schoolteacher who works with the United Nations as a translator. After three and a half years under siege, the town of Srebrenica, close to the northeastern Serbian border, was declared a UN safety zone in 1993 and put under the protection of a Dutch battalion working for the UN.
I came across this film on a list of recommended films or I'd never have watched it. I saw it on Hulu.
trailer:
Roger Ebert's website opens a positive review with this:
Jasmila Zbanic’s “Quo Vadis, Aida?” is a razor-sharp incrimination of failed foreign policies from around the world embedded in a deeply humanist and moving character study of the kind of person that these policies leave behind. It’s a very specific story of war crimes in 1995, but it feels also like a modern commentary on how often foreign policy and U.N. intervention fails to see the human lives caught up in their decision making, and so often in their inability to make those tough decisions quickly and empathetically. Taut and intense, this is the kind of film that a critic hopes finds a broad enough audience to provoke conversation and insight about how we fix these broken systems. It truly feels like Zbanic’s work here could effect change if seen by the right people.
100% of Rotten Tomatoes critics give it a positive review.
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Hummingbird perched in the redbud tree:
Posts
Ahhh--love the hummingbird! But I will pass on a war movie right now. ;)
ReplyDeleteYes, I do not favor war movies.
Delete...I'm glad that the hummingbird posed for you.
ReplyDeleteMe, too!
DeleteI've never seen a hummingbird perch! Just always flitting to and fro
ReplyDeleteThey perch on our feeder. It's rarer to see them in the tree.
DeleteI haven't seen and probably never will see this film. but I remember that ethnic cleansing when it happened. Sickening war. Lovely photo of the Hummingbird, though.
ReplyDeleteI remember it, too. Tragic :(
DeleteHow lovely that your Hummer stays for a photo op! Each war is horrible, and yet we learn nothing from them.
ReplyDeleteIt stayed there a good long time keeping an eye out to defend the feeder. Yesterday I spotted it in the pink dogwood tree :)
DeleteWhen I was teaching we had children in the school who had fled their land to find safety here, they were all so traumatized by the happenings there.. Valerie
ReplyDeleteIt's something I bet they never really recover from :(
DeleteOh look at that fabulous hummer! I finally got Hulu. The list is long but I might add this. Doesn't sound like an easy film, though.
ReplyDeleteMy list at Hulu is shorter than the one at Max, but that isn't saying much lol
DeleteThat's a nice photograph of the hummingbird.
ReplyDeleteAll the best Jan
Thank you. I was afraid I'd miss the shot.
Delete