Quo Vadis, Aida?

July 1995 in Ireland was mighty. We were having one of the warmest summers on record. The Oasis Vs Blur showdown was in full effect. Waterworld was in the cinema and everyone was moaning about it without ever seeing it and Jonah Lomu was the new sporting hero in town despite being on the losing team of the Rugby World Cup final. 1200 miles away the inhabitants of a town in Bosnia were going through hell and the world just stood by and let it happen.

Four years after the break up of Yugoslavia had raised tensions in the Balkans and two years after the Croatian-Bosnian conflict had escalated the town of Srebrenica has become a protected UN enclave and the Muslim men and women of the area are turning up in droves looking for protection from the Serbian army of Republika Srpska, a paramilitary force led by Ratko Mladić who are intent on wiping them out. Working with the UN peacekeepers is Aida (Jasna Đuričić), a former teacher turned translator who's job is to act as a go between for the Serb soldiers, the Bosnian civilians and the Dutch peacekeepers. She's also desperate to protect her husband Nihad (Izudin Bajrović) and sons Hamdija (Boris Ler) and Sejo (Dino Bajrović).

At no point throughout Quo Vadis, Aida do we see a drop of blood spilled but the impact of atrocity is pervasive. Aida, her family, the powerless peacekeepers. None of them are quite sure what's down the road for them. Us, the viewers know there's nothing but horror in their immediate future and the feeling of inevitability and tension feels almost suffocating at times. It's the little details that get you. Family photos being ripped apart to hide connections, meek, terrified responses to a barked order, a beloved journal destroyed, a slow pan along a line of scared, tired faces, ordinary men and boys, knowing they are doomed, moments that personify what up until now, for us lucky enough to live in Western Europe, have always been statistics in print or onscreen.

Director Jasmila Žbanić, born in Sarajevo and living there throughout the conflict, has first hand experience of the pain caused by the Srebrenica massacre and her vision of it is a respectful one that eschews melodrama, one that never dulls the pain or terror felt by the survivors but one that thankfully never feels the need to rub the viewers nose in the violence of the situation in the way that films about European massacres like Vohhynia and Katyń did. It's a Bosnian story about Bosnian people. The wider world knows the broad strokes of happened here. There's no need to exploit it. But there's always been a need to humanise it and through Aida's eyes that very thing happens.

It's often said that there's nothing more fearsome than a mother when her children are threatened and the strength and resilience shown by Aida is astounding with Jasna Đuričić painting her as a nonstop dynamo, always pleading, begging, bargaining, running, worrying about everyone else but herself. In her very few moments of downtime her personality shines through (a flashback to a party, stolen conversations about how life should be) and it's these slivers of compassion and humour that will make you realise just how involved you've become in her story. And then it's the bigger picture story that will enrage you. The absolute indifference from the wider world when Colonel Karremans (Johan Heldenbergh), the leader of the peacekeepers realises the UN delegates who should be dealing with this are all on holiday, creating an atmosphere that allows war mongers like Mladić (Boris Isaković, quietly terrifying as a wannabe demigod) to kill thousands unimpeded. In the 26 years since this happened you'd imagine lessons would have had been learned, that the United Nations would never let this happen again. But then you look at what's happening recently in Ethiopia and for years now in Syria and you realise nothing will ever change.

Quo Vadis, Aida? is streaming on google movies now. It's a powerful watch but one you'll need to prepare yourself for.