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I don’t know about you, but I find that most evenings, I’m not really up for watching something that requires too much concentration.

That’s Tenet off the table, then.

Maybe a Netflix true-crime series, or a repeat of Rick and Morty, but I’ll generally steer clear of the real hard-hitting stuff unless I’m in the mood.

You will need to be in the mood, and then some, if you’re going to watch Quo Vadis, Aida?, although The Guardian’s review makes it clear that you should try and find the time.

The film, from Bosnian writer-director Jasmila Žbanić, covers the Srebrenica massacre in 1995, during the Bosnian war.

In Europe’s biggest civilian atrocity since WWII, more than 7 000 unarmed Bosnian Muslims, who were sheltering in a so-called UN “safe area”, were slaughtered.

As I said, this isn’t for the faint of heart.

Here’s the movie’s write-up:

Jasmila Zbanic’s drama unfolds in 1995, just as the Serbian army have entered the mostly Muslim Bosnia town. Aida is a translator for the UN. Her family is among the thousands of citizens looking for shelter in the UN camp. But as an insider to the negotiations, she has access to crucial information that forces her into the untenable position of deciding between her obligation to those she loves and the role that has a wider impact.

And here’s the trailer:

Subject matter doesn’t come much heavier than that.

To the review:

…[Žbanić’s] latest film seemed to me an icily brilliant and overwhelmingly convincing attempt to tackle, head-on, this shameful atrocity: shameful for the UN, the European Union and all those western world leaders who had been reluctant to intervene – perhaps because the totemic word “Sarajevo” made them fear a new world war…

As for the title, it’s taken from the apocryphal Christian tradition that Peter met the risen Christ outside Rome and asked him: “Quo vadis?” – “Whither goest thou?” – and the answer was: to Rome, to be crucified again.

Aida herself is crucified twice, once during the massacre and again afterwards, as she begins to recognise certain people in the community she has rejoined.

The film will once again shine a light on the horrors that took place at Srebrenica, and will be available on Curzon Home Cinema from tomorrow (January 22).

[source:guardian]