The film ‘Quo Vadis, Aida?’, which focuses on the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, will be aired by Montenegro’s public broadcaster on Wednesday – the first time it has been shown on any TV station in the country.
This article is also available in: Shqip Macedonian Bos/Hrv/Srp
Scene from the film “Quo Vadis Aida”. Photo: Deblokada.ba
The film Quo Vadis, Aida?, which centres on the 1995 Srebrenica genocide by Bosnian Serb forces, will be aired on the Montenegrin public broadcaster on Wednesday. Director Jasmila Zbanic’s Oscar-nominated film was declared the best film in 2021 in the selection of the European Film Academy.
The opposition Bosniak Party hailed the public broadcaster’s decision as a contribution to ethnic reconciliation.
“There is no lasting reconciliation without facing the past. Although the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina ended more than 25 years ago, unfortunately, we are still witnessing the denial of the Srebrenica genocide and the glorification of convicted war criminals,” the Bosniak Party said in a press release.
Quo Vadis, Aida? is a movie about a Bosnian translator for the United Nations trying to save her family after the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995 to Bosnian Serb forces led by General Ratko Mladic.
It will be the first time that the movie will be aired on any television station in Montenegro. It was shown last December at the Human Rights Film Festival in Podgorica.
In July 1995, more than 7,000 Bosniak men and boys from Srebrenica were massacred by Bosnian Serb forces, and over 40,000 women, children and elderly people were expelled – a crime that was classified as genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY, and by the International Court of Justice.
Meanwhile, on December 28, the movie was premiered in Novi Pazar Cultural Centre in southwest Serbia, with two projections. Mothers of Srebrenica, a survivors group, was present at the premiere while movie director Jasmila Zbanic addressed the audience via video link.
The director of the Cultural Centre, Husein Memic, said the screenings also had a humanitarian character and that all the funds from the tickets would be donated to the Mothers of Srebrenica Association.
The issue of the Srebrenica massacre divides multi-ethnic and multi-confessional Montenegro, although the government and parliament have officially recognized the mass killing as genocide.
On June 17, Montenegro’s parliament dismissed Minister of Justice, Human and Minority Rights Vladimir Leposavic after he expressed doubts about the rulings of the Hague tribunal classifying the 1995 Srebrenica massacre by Bosnian Serb forces as genocide.
The pro-Serbian politician had claimed on March 29 that the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague had no legitimacy because it had destroyed evidence about the alleged trafficking of the organs of Serbian civilians in Kosovo. The minister later insisted he was not denying the Srebrenica killings but expressing his position on the Hague court in general.
On June 17, parliament adopted a resolution on recognizing the Srebrenica genocide, proposed by the opposition parties. The resolution backed by 55 MPs from the opposition and from two ruling blocs, Peace is Our Nation and Black on White, prohibits public denial of the Srebrenica genocide and called on state institutions to investigate and prosecute war crimes.
The largest bloc in the ruling majority, For the Future of Montenegro, voted against the resolution, calling it an attack on the country’s Serbian community.
Source link: balkaninsight.com
