Directing: A
Acting: A
Writing: A
Cinematography: A-
Editing: A

Whither goest thou, Aida? asks the title of this film, and I can tell you right up front: nowhere good. This is an expertly crafted film about the senseless horrors of war, full stop. If you’re looking for a story about the resilience of hope, find another movie.

I don’t say that to be flip. It’s genuinely one of the best things about Quo Vadis, Aida?, in that writer-director Jasmila Zbanic takes an uncompromising look at the Bosnian war, and specifically, the Srebrenica Genocide at the hands of Serbian troops in 1995. This is a story full of tension, the kind that leaves you uneasy always, a specific suspense that comes with an increasing sense of dread. Things are not going to go well for these people.

In other words, it’s not a good time. Instead, this is a film that serves as a challenge to remember, and to acknowledge the extent of conflict around the globe. I thought a lot about the 1993 Steven Spielberg film Schindler’s List while watching this—there are many similarities. A key difference is that Qu Vadis, Aida? does not in any way present itself as “art.” There is no black and white cinematography here, no symbolic child in a red coat. This is straightforward drama, and a gripping one at that.

As is always the best choice when examining an event with complexity on this scale, Zbanic zeroes in on the a single character, and her experience through it. In this case it’s Aida (Jasna Djuricic), a UN translator working at a military base near the aforementioned Srebrenica, an East Bosnian town of around 2,500—that being roughly half of what it was some thirty years ago. The events of this film depict just a fraction of the more than eight thousand men and boys who were separated from the women and girls of the town and surrounding region, and then summarily executed in large groups. One scene in which a large group of men are locked into a gym-sized room is particularly haunting.

Almost none of this film is graphic or gruesome, which actually serves to deepen its impact. Many deaths do occur in the course of this small slice of the story being told, but through skillful cinematography and editing, no bloodshed is seen directly onscreen. The casual execution of the town’s mayor occurs on the other side of a wall. A serbian soldier casually steps over the body of a slain woman with bullet holes in her back. Considering how desensitized we are as viewers of violent action and crime films, spending our time instead focusing on the enduring fears of those still left alive is far more unsettling. Which, in this film, is as it should be.

The story follows Aida as she takes increasingly desperate action to protect her husband and two barely-grown sons. The opening shot of the film is on Adia’s face, and then the camera pans over to the other three men in her family, all sitting in their living room, staring silently. It is their last moment of peace before they flee to the UN base where fleeing Bosnians are meant to feel safe and protected, and Aida is tasked with translating the Dutch soldiers’ announcements and occasional negotiations.

Much of the film focuses on the Dutch military personnel manning this base, and how out of depth they are in this situation. Calls to leadership in the UN are frustratingly fruitless, even after a succession of failed promises to retaliate against the Serbs and protect the Bosnians from them. The base is massively overwhelmed with Bosnians forced out of Srebrenica after the Serbs overtake the town with tanks, several thousand taken inside and even more thousands crowded outside because there is no room left for them. This base is the setting of the vast majority of the film, as Aida tries desperately to find ways to get her family safely out of there.

And make no mistake: this is a difficult movie to watch. I actually think it best that you be warned, there really isn’t the happy ending that you’re used to. In a way, it’s a lesson we all need: the “inspirational” stories we love so much, of the people who triumph or escape—for every one of those, there are thousands of others whose fates are far different. I don’t know that I could convince many to watch this, or that among the Oscar nominees for Best International Feature, this one deserves the award far more than the likely winner, Another Round. But of course, middle-aged Danish men experimenting with light and steady drunkenness is a lot more appealing to viewers and Academy voters alike. Who watches a movie about genocide as a way to pass the time?

Well, I do. You should too. Quo Vadis, Aida? is an exquisitely constructed tale of real-life horror and loss. The script spends very little time on the ideology of the characters, with minor exceptions like when Serbian soldiers are calling the Bosnian women loaded onto buses “Muslim scum.” Beyond that, if you want to learn of the myriad nuances of the conflict, Google it. All that matters is that a military force with greater collective muscle engaged in genocide, and in this instance, this is what it looked like, You can take Aida’s circumstances and multiply them exponentially, but more importantly, be witness to the emotional agony of the individual. Quo Vadis, Aida? is unpleasant yet essential, and I won’t soon forget it.

*Aida is tasked with offering hollow words of assurance.*

Overall: A