Nomination for the Oscar is a great thing and we are hoping for the best, said Jasna Djuricic, the leading actress in the film 'Quo Vadis, Aida?' by Bosnian filmmaker Jasmila Zbanic, which was selected as one of five candidates for the Academy Awards in the Best International Feature Film category. “Jasmila wrote a wonderful story and gathered an amazing team, not only the actors, the whole team was very professional and great, and it all resulted in such success,” Djuricic told N1.

She said that all five movies in this category rasing for the Oscar are the best and that details will decide on the winner.

“The nomination made the many see the film. This was some kind of a deciding moment for people who were fed up with those war stories and who wanted something else, to make them see it. Congratulatory notes are coming from all parts of the world, especially from the region and Serbia, and I am thanking them all, I am grateful for those words. It is a huge support. All comments of the audience always mattered to me more than awards,” she said,

The film tells a story about woman Aida, a translator working with the UN during the 1992-95 Bosnian war and towards the genocide in Srebrenica, who while on duty is also trying to protect her family.

‘Quo Vadis, Aida?’ premiered at the 77th Venice Film Festival last year and its screening was rewarded with standing ovations, Djuricic recalled.

“It was not sort of the ovation where people are shouting ‘bravo’ and which turns into euphoria, this was the lasting one and it was dignified, just as the film theme. The people in the hall paid respects not to us but to the theme, the victims and it was magnificent. A special kind of applause where we were all one and knew who was it for,” she stressed.

The filming was filled with emotions, she said, but she managed to suppress them until she is alone.

“It was hard. Emotions are released later in solitude and that is fine, go home and cry, crying is ok, but not all the time,” said the actress.

As for negative comments on the film, appearing mostly on social networks, Djuricic said she was not interested in that.

“Everyone is free to say their opinion but there has to be a way. That's a bunch of half-literate people everywhere, and why should they be given space? It has to be sanctioned, it is forcing us to never speak again. That's the reason why I don't speak for media, this is a precedent because it is about the Oscar and I am happy for that and I don't want such primitive things to dictate my life,” she explained.

Asked if there will be a moment when everyone will be able to look into Aida's eyes, she replied:

“If we stop closing our eyes and turning our heads away then the young will follow the example. We are the ones to teach them how to think with their own heads, and not our education system which was formed to spill some narratives into the children's heads from the very beginning. That's something we must change together.”