That's my family out there

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's Top 51 Films of 2021

#16 : Quo Vadis, Aida?

Through the eyes of a translator moving between the different ethnic factions, director Jasmila Žbanić musters real tragic power and clear-eyed compassion revisiting the Srebrenica massacre 25 years on.

Right.  This is serious stuff.  We've had two =#17 and then we have #16 - and do you know what that means?  Well, I can tell you it means we seriously need to reconsider our place in this world, because it turns out The Guardian's Top 50 Films of 2021 is, in fact, The Guardian's Top 51 Films of 2021.  WHAAAATTTT?!?  I feel like I've been lied to my entire life - well, since Xmas, anyway.

Anyways, moving on from such serious matters, let's consider this film which deals with a much more light-hearted subject - namely the Srebenica massacre.  This is going to be a giggle, isn't it?  I'm imagining this is going to be a grim watch about man's inhumanity to man and I'm not struggling to see I'm going to manage this in one stretch - I generally find unremitting grimness too hard to take.

But well, it's not nearly as grim as I feared - but I would have to say it's not exactly a barrel of laughs either.  As The Guardian's synopsis suggests, we're basically following Aida, the translator (played by Jasna Đuričić, and it's probably best if you don't ask me how to pronounce that) as she interacts with various groups of people, most of whom have been placed in an impossible situation due to, shall we say, slightly unreasonable military action by an intransigent opponent.  So it's certainly a timely watch and no mistake.

And, all in all, it's a compelling watch with quite a few scenes which are poised on a knife edge - you know things are going to end badly, but you're not sure exactly how badly (spoiler alert - some of them end very badly).  I've no idea how true it all is, but it feels if it wasn't then someone would have kicked off about it - it's all just an intensely horrible situation which unfortunately "we" show no signs of learning from.  It's fair to say the ending is a bit of a downer - but you knew it wasn't exactly going to end well although I was somewhat surprised by the anti-climax of the ultimate ending of the film.  And, well I think that's all I can really tell you about it.

It is well acted - Jasna Đuričić is great in the main role, with Raymond Thiry providing great support as a UN major who is obviously reasonably capable, but way out of his depth in this situation and, to make things worse, he knows it.  The role of the UN is portrayed interestingly - not necessarily in tune with the usual portrayal, but actually very believable nonetheless.  And yes, I totally accept that you never really know about these these things unless you've lived through them (and I'm glad to say I haven't). 

Also of note is Boris Isaković as Ratko Mladić (which must have been an "interesting" role to take on as a Serbian) - he exudes evil in a very casual (and hence impressively evil) way.  The crowd scenes were also very impressive and surely must have been painful for some of the extras to portray.  Imdb also tells me that Jasna and Boris are married and often work together, but don't share any scenes in this film

What I could not claim is that this film is a well shot film - it's possible this was either intentional or the result of either technical or location limitations, but it looks technically dated.  Given the timeframe of the events displayed, it doesn't necessarily hurt the film - but it is somewhat distracting at times.  However, it is a well set film - the locations are well chosen and feel very authentic (to me, with my somewhat limited knowledge of mid-90s Bosnia).

This film most definitely isn't a documentary but it also doesn't present itself as such - and it is also more effective in some ways as a result because we have Aida's story to hold on to.  And the film does a good job in not making her or any of her colleagues bigger than the story, so you believe in their outcome.  Reading up on the massacre, it was actually far worse than portrayed here (and that's not to say it's played down here) so a documentary of the events would be a grimmer story - possibly overly grim, but there are fine lines (of grimness) here.

At time of writing, the film is available to watch on Netflix and I think it's well worth a watch, although you'd have to be in the right mood for it.  I "enjoyed" it far more than I was expecting to and I feel like I've been subtly educated on a thoroughly depressing historical episode.

=#17 - A good looking film, but not much else
#15 - A charming film