Quo Vadis, Aida?, Old Enough, and more to watch this weekend

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In Canada, UK, and Ireland, the best film of 2021 is now streaming on Netflix: Quo Vadis, Aida. Catch Old Enough on Criterion Channel before it leaves at the end of the month. Finally, catch up with Ken Loach's harrowing look at the gig economy, which made our top 10 of 2020 list.

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Quo Vadis, Aida?

Netflix Canada/UK/Ireland, Hulu US

Find the film in your country.

Our #1 film of the year is now available to rent or stream all over. It was nominated for the Oscar for Best International Film — one of the few cases where we actually agree with Oscar — and deservedly swept the European Film Awards (Picture, Director, Actress).

Here's an excerpt from Orla's review.

It was a while into the first scene of Quo Vadis, Aida? before I realised that Jasna Ðuricic’s fierce lead character, Aida, was a translator. Facilitating a discussion between the mayor of her hometown, Srebrenica in Bosnia, and a pair of Dutch UN soldiers, she spends the scene simply relaying the words of the men in the room, but Ðuricic makes her opinions of the men’s decisions so clear that she could easily be mistaken for a participant. She shifts in her seat, her gaze set in a worried scowl, her eyes shifting restlessly between everyone in the room. She and the mayor exchange knowing looks as if silently communicating. When she translates, she speaks quickly in a stern tone, rushing the conversation along because she knows how urgent the matters being discussed are. Impartial translation is pretty much impossible in any case — you’re always adapting words and phrasing through your own lens — but especially for Aida, a citizen of wartorn Srebrenica.

This is 1995, in the heat of the war between the Serbian and Bosnian populations, and the Serbs are encroaching on Srebrenica in increasingly violent ways. Writer-director Jasmila Žbanic, who lived through the war, drops us straight into the action with this scene of negotiation between the mayor, who is concerned for the safety of his townspeople, and the UN soldiers, who assure him that the Serbs “have been issued an ultimatum” that will keep Srebrenica safe. Through Aida’s panicked eyes, we watch this hopeless conversation unfold as the soldiers naively reason that the Serbs won’t attack because the UN has warned that they will face “serious consequences” if they do.

This is the prologue to Quo Vadis, Aida?, a harrowing retelling of the genocide of the people of Srebrenica that grapples with the complicity of those who were ‘just doing their job.’ Although the film is brutal and disturbing, it refrains from showing us the most violent acts of the genocide, like the rapes and beheadings. Even when the mass genocidal slaughter occurs at the end of the film, Žbanic shows us the guns firing but not the bodies hitting the floor. She’s interested in who holds the power, not the spectacle of their violence.

Read the full review.

Dive into our resource page on the film, which features an interview with the director, an interview with the lead actress, and a (now members only) podcast episode.

We also recorded an in-depth podcast episode on Quo Vadis, Aida!

As a member, you have access to the entire podcast archive, including this members only episode from March 2021.

To listen to the episode on Quo Vadis Aida, look for episode 82. Genocide on film: Quo Vadis Aida and Our Lady of the Nile in your Premium Podcast feed.

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Sorry We Missed You

BBC iPlayer UK, Criterion Channel + Kanopy Canada/US, SuperChannel Canada, Binge/Foxtel Now AU

Hoping that self-employment through gig economy can solve their financial woes, a hard-up UK delivery driver and his wife struggling to raise a family end up trapped in the vicious circle of this modern-day form of labour exploitation. We named this one of our top 10 films of 2020.

A father embraces his young daughter on the couch in Sorry We Missed You, one of the best films of 2020.

Ken Loach’s Sorry We Missed You tackles similar territory as I, Daniel Blake, this time about a middle-aged father trying to secure his family’s financial future by participating in the gig economy — which ends up sucking him dry in more ways than one. Although he is a decent man, the pressures of financial hardship causes rifts in his relationship with his wife and children and causes him to behave in an ugly manner. While I, Daniel Blake asked us to sympathize with a man’s plight because he was decent, Sorry We Missed You charts how decent people turn cruel and desperate when they’re stuck with no financial options.

We also recorded a podcast on Sorry We Missed You (in comparison with Peterloo)

Ken Loach and Mike Leigh, two long time British directors, are frequently compared to each other, despite having significantly different approaches. Loach’s latest film, Sorry We Missed You, reminded us of Leigh’s most recent film, Peterloo, in their political commitment to improving the lives of the working class.

Click here to read the show notes on our website

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Old Enough

Leaving Criterion Channel Canada/US at the end of February; Tubi Canada/US/AU, VOD UK

It's that time of the month when Criterion Channel subscribers freak out about all the films leaving the channel that we have yet to see! To help you narrow down your list, here's one essential film.

Here's Orla on the film:

Marisa Silver’s ‘80s coming-of-age treat Old Enough is not to be missed before it leaves Criterion Channel at the end of this month. It’s the story of two girls, Lonnie (Sarah Boyd) and Karen (Rainbow Harvest), about to emerge into their teen years, who form a friendship and wander the streets of New York together before summer ends. It has flashes of Water Lilies, although even more so than that film, Old Enough is very concerned with how class impacts both girls and their relationship. Lonnie is from a rich family, and becoming friends with the working-class Karen means learning that not everyone lives in her privileged bubble. And the film isn’t shy about showing how much hurt Lonnie’s obliviousness to her privilege can cause.

Happy watching!

Best,

Alex Heeney, Editor-in-Chief

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