High on the list of achievements of the Bosnian drama Quo Vadis, Aida? must be its success in dramatising the hours leading up to the Srebrenica genocide – where more than 8,000 men and boys were killed in July 1995 – without showing anything more violent than a slap in the face. As this besieged mountain town, a supposed UN safe zone, is overrun by Bosnian Serb forces led by Ratko Mladic (Boris Isakovic), soldiers are seen looting houses and opening fire. A “formal ultimatum” issued by the UN, which threatened air strikes if the Serbs advanced, was about as realistic a deterrent as the toy helicopter we glimpse on the steps of a ransacked home.
The Bosnian Muslim civilians who make it out of Srebrenica are heading for the Dutch military compound, where UN peace- keepers represent their only hope of sanctuary. Someone asks whether it wouldn’t be safer to head for the woods. “Are you crazy?” replies Aida Selmanagic (Jasna Ðuricic), a Bosnian interpreter. “They can’t touch the UN!”
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