Quo Vadis, Aida? - Movie Review

Critics Score - 9 of 10

General Audience Score - 8 of 10

Quo Vadis, Aida? is quite possibly the best movie you’ve probably never heard of. Think of all the good and great movies you watched from 2020. This film is better than pretty much all of them, it’s in my top 3 of the year. Go watch it, it’s spectacular, I guarantee it.

PROS - Quo Vadis, Aida? follows the story of Aida, I won’t include the actors names as most are Bosnian and Serbian and not only will you probably not know them, I don’t know what alphabet letters they use for me to type them. All you need to know is they’re all superb. Especially Aida, this is her story and she delivers one of the best performances of the year. The film is based on factual events and tells the story of a wife and mother that works for the UN as an interpreter during a humanitarian crisis. There is a government change taking place that the UN is seemingly powerless to stop. The new regime is promising peace and handing out loaves of bread to hungry refugees, but the audience clues in as Aida does, something just isn’t right. I will not spoil the movie but let’s just say Aida’s desperation in trying to keep her family safe will turn even the strongest willed person to putty.

Beside the brilliant acting on display, this movie is written, produced and directed by another amazing woman, again who’s name I can’t get the alphabetical characters for. But she’s phenomenal, in her clear vision for this film and ability to make such a cinematic marvel, proving the ladies deserve the credit and respect of great filmmaking right alongside the men. This movie will take your breath away and level you as a human being. But is Quo Vadis, Aida? for everyone?

CONS - As was mentioned, the film is based around actual events that took place in Bosnia in the mid 90’s but the characters and conversations were fictional. I find films that have actual people from the pages of history to be just a little more hard hitting and moving, but this movie gets pretty much as far as you can without them.

Other than that, the languages spoken in the movie are primarily Bosnian with a fair amount of English being spoken and some Serbian. So the same people that don’t like international films due to the amount of reading required will not get too excited for this film. There generally are very few flaws with this movie and most of them really just come across as nitpicking. This movie is a solid 9 for me and may graduate to a 10 someday.

SUMMARY - Quo Vadis, Aida? is a difficult story to swallow. But it’s an important film and in the end it’s some of the best cinema out there that money can buy. Even if you’re not a huge fan of international films, take a chance on Aida, she’ll show you what real cinema is all about.