The film 'Quo Vadis, Aida?' by Bosnian director and screenwriter Jasmila Zbanic will compete this year alongside 20 other films for the Golden Lion of the 77th Venice International Film Festival.

“It’s a great reward to be selected for the Venice Film Festival. The Venice Biennale, as one of the major world film festivals, will make it possible for the film to be seen by a huge audience, and that’s exactly what we wanted,” said Zbanic, the author.

“We hope the film will trigger empathy and more understanding among the people in the region,” she said.

According to Zbanic, the film is dedicated to all women of Srebrenica and their murdered sons, husbands, brothers, neighbours…

The plot follows a woman named Aida, who works as a translator for the UN mission in Bosnian eastern town Srebrenica. Once the Serb forces reach the town, dozens of thousands of Srebrenica residents, including Aida’s family, try to seek for shelter at the UN base.

Zbanic is a renowned Bosnian filmmaker whose feature film Grbavica won the Golden Bear at the 56th Berlin International Film Festival, the Grand Jury Prize at the International Feature Competition Festival in 2006, and was awarded the Best European Film and best European actress award in 2006.