jasmila zbanic

Quo Vadis, Aida?

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Aida with Colonel Karremans

Jasmila Zbanic’s powerful drama Quo Vadis, Aida?, about the Srebrenica massacre in 1995, starts with a sad irony. As the production company idents come up, and various “with the support of” and “in collaboration with” credits list all the European and international organisations involved, remember that when the events in this flm were playing out in real life actual international collaboration seemed to consist of a collective looking the other way. Ask most people, most Europeans even, what the last war in Europe was and they’ll likely refer you to Adolf Hitler. That’s to forget the Bosnian war in the aftermath of the fragmentation of Yugoslavia – familiar as a holiday destination to so … Read more

Grbavica – Land of My Dreams

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Luna Mijovic and Mirjana Karanovic in Grabavica: Land of My Dreams

A movie for every day of the year – a good one 11 July The Srebrenica massacre, 1995 On this day in 1995, the killing began of more than 8,000 Bosniaks (ie Bosnian Muslims) in Srebrenica as part of the ongoing Bosnian War. They were killed by the Bosnian Serb Army under the command of General Ratko Mladic. At the time the enclave of Srebrenica was under the safekeeping of a United Nations Protection Force. But the Serbs were well organised, well armed and motivated by what they saw as the loss of territory vital to any continuing hopes of an independent Serbia. And, having blockaded the town for months, on 6 July … Read more