Bosnian filmmaker Jasmila Zbanic said the boycott of her film ‘Quo Vadis, Aida’ by the Serbian state television (RTS) was a political decision and explained why it was important to her that the film be shown on RTS.
“For four years I lived under Serbian war artillery and sniper rifles in Sarajevo, without food, water, electricity, heating, medicines…in constant fear for my life and that of my dearest. The Yugoslav People’s Army, the Army of the Republic of Srpska and members of special and paramilitary units from Serbia killed and tortured us. We lived encircled and we couldn’t break out. I was 17, I lost relatives and friends to shells and sniper rifles, while the RTS reported that we were shelling and starving ourselves,” said Zbanic, adding that the film could pave the way for better understanding and greater empathy.
“As a European filmmaker, I am not professionally interested in this television, but I am as a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Symbolically the war will be over when the public service RTS stops being in the service of war-mongering propaganda. The citizens of Serbia, especially young people, who thanks to RTS have no idea about everything that happened should know about the crimes that they have nothing to do with because they were not born at the time. The criminals who committed them hide behind them trying to turn everything they did into collective guilt. RTS is helping them in this. Young people should know the truth so that they could stop lauding the criminals holding them hostage and they should build a path of joint future so to prevent a new war,” said Zbanic.
The multi-award winning film tells a story about 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. Its only screening in Serbia happened in Novi Pazar, while it was never aired on national TV stations.
Zbanic said she was “unofficially told” in the talks on potential airing of her film on RTS that they previously have to consult Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on the matter.
The RTS responded saying that her claim “would be considered a disinformation” until she names her RTS source.
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