Paris-based company Indie Sales has sealed a flurry of deals on Jasmila Žbanić’s drama “Quo Vadis, Aida” which world premiered in competition at Venice and is part of Toronto’s official selection.
The film is based on real events and is set in the Bosnian summer of 1995 during the Serbian occupation of Srebrenica, declared to be safe zone by the United Nations. Aida works as a translator for the UN peacekeeping task force in charge of a camp where her husband and two sons are being held along with thousands of other Bosnian citizens. Aida quickly gains access to crucial information she needs to translate, while the Serbian army gets closer to overtaking the camp.
The film has been sold to France (Condor Distribution), Italy (Academy Two-Lucky Red), Switzerland (Cineworx), Greece (One from the Heart), Denmark (Angel Films), Czech Republic & Slovakia (Aerofilms), Sweden (Folkets Bio), Germany (Farbfilm), Austria (Polyfilm), Poland (Gutek Film), Benelux (Cinéart) and Japan (New Select).
The critically acclaimed movie received three parallel awards in Venice, including the Brian Award, Signis Award and Premio Unimed nods.
“We are very thankful to the Venice Film Festival team for this very successful and well-organized particular edition,” said Nicolas Eschbach, Indie Sales and Indie Prod CEO and co-founder. “The film was not only critically-acclaimed but also warmly received both by the audience and the industry,” said Eschbach.
Žbanic previously won the Golden Bear in 2006 with her debut feature “Grbavica,” and had her second feature “On The Path” competed at Berlin in 2010. She also directed “For Those Who Can Tell No Tales” and “Love Island” which played at major festivals.
“Quo Vadis, Aida” was produced by Sarajevo-based Deblokada, in co-production with coop99 filmproduktion (Austria), Digital Cube (Romania), N279 (Netherlands), Razor Film (Germany), Extreme Emotions (Poland), Indie Prod (France), Torden Film (Norway), TRT (Turkey), ZDF ARTE, ORF and BHRT.