“Don’t shoot the piano player” were the famous words uttered by Dutchbat commander Thom Karremans before he toasted with Serbian general Ratko Mladić in 1995. Shortly afterwards, Mladić’s army committed genocide on the Muslim population of Srebrenica, killing over 8,000 people.
This moving, urgently needed drama by Jasmila Žbanić meticulously dissects how this conflict went from bad to worse. Žbanić’s previous films studied the lasting effects of the genocide on contemporary Bosnia and Herzegovina. Now, for the first time, the director focuses on the events themselves. The fictional Aida (Jasna Đuričić), an interpreter at the Dutch UN base in Srebrenica, feels torn. She has to translate Dutch orders for the locals, yet had lost faith in the UN soldiers’ ability to de-escalate the conflict.
Within the online platform subtitles are only available in Dutch. Winner BankGiro Loterij Audience Award, IFFR 2021.