Poland's Madants, Sweden's Plattform Produktion, U.K.'s Good Chaos Board Jasmila Žbanić's Buzzy ‘Quo Vadis, Aida?' Sequel (EXCLUSIVE)
Bosnian filmmaker Jasmila Žbanić is partnering with some of Europe's hottest indie production labels for the sequel to her Academy Award-nominated 'Quo Vadis, Aida?,' which the director is pitching May 18 at the Cannes Investors Circle.
'Quo Vadis, Aida? – The Missing Part' is an international co-production led by Deblokada (Bosnia and Herzegovina), in co-production with Indie Prod (France), NGF Geyrhalterfilm (Austria), Topkapi Films (Netherlands), Madants (Poland), Razor Film (Germany), Plattform Produktion (Sweden) and Good Chaos (U.K.). Indie Sales has also come onboard as the international sales agent.
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The previous film, which competed for best international feature at the 2021 Oscars, followed a Bosnian UN translator, Aida (Jasna Đuričić), torn between family and duty in Srebrenica, where more than 8,000 civilians — mostly Muslim men and boys — were slaughtered in the worst act of mass killing on European soil since World War II.
The sequel finds Aida, again played by Đuričić, on a peacetime journey to discover the fates of her husband and sons. Joining with other women who organize protests and conduct their own private investigations in search of truth and justice, they overcome corruption, political inertia and other obstacles while recognizing that the peace process is 'harder than the war itself,' according to Žbanić.
After a riveting premiere at the Venice Film Festival in 2020, where Variety's Jessica Kiang praised the 'deeply compelling, harrowing and heartbreaking' film as a 'vital retelling of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre,' 'Quo Vadis, Aida?' went on to scoop more than 50 international awards, including Best European Film, Best European Director and Best European Actress (Đuričić) at the European Film Awards.
'The Missing Part' picks up six months after that film left off, allowing Žbanić to answer 'a lot of questions about the search for the missing people, the return to Srebrenica and the post-war situation' that audiences had in the wake of the first feature.
'The [original] script for the film 'Quo Vadis, Aida?' featured a large segment depicting the complexity of peace following the genocide in Srebrenica,' the director told Variety. 'I decided that it would be impossible to put everything in one film and chose to treat peace (non-warfare) only briefly in the epilogue. This proved to be a good decision, as people resonated with the film on a very emotional level.
'The audience's interest and my own need to tell this untold story about the struggle of women from Srebrenica for truth and justice led me to decide on a sequel,' she continued. '[The title] primarily refers to Aida's sons, who are a missing part of her — as well as to the first film, because it shows what was not presented, detailing events that took place before the epilogue and Aida's entry into Srebrenica.'
'Quo Vadis, Aida? – The Missing Part' is supported by key European film funds including the Austrian Film Institute, Filmfonds Wien, the Polish Film Institute, the Swedish Film Institute, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Film i Väst, CNC – Aide aux cinémas du monde and the Ministry of Culture and Sports – Canton of Sarajevo. Broadcast partners include ARTE/ZDF, ORF and TRT.
Žbanić is looking to close financing in Cannes, with plans to start principal photography in Feb. 2026. Alongside Đuričić, confirmed cast include Jasna Žalica ('Mother Mara'), Jelena Kordić Kuret ('I Know Your Soul') and French actor Arieh Worthalter ('The Goldman Case').
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