In the Land of Blood and Honey

Greetings again from the darkness. The Bosnian War is not something most Americans know much about. The cursory western media coverage was matched by the hands-off approach from the UN, until the very end. This movie doesn't shy away from exposing the atrocities of ethnic cleansing and genocide that occurred against civilians. The comparisons to Nazi war camps are inescapable. This is no place for a history lesson, and I would certainly not be the one to supply it, but some basics are required to somewhat understand what's going on. The reign of Yugoslavian President Tito lasted until his death in 1980. Although much criticism is directed his way, he was able to maintain a society that allowed the co-existence of Bosniak Muslims and Orthodox Serbs. You might recall that in 1984, Sarajevo hosted the Winter Olympics. Not long after that, the republics began skirmishes that eventually escalated to a complicated civil war lasting from 1992-95 (The Bosnian War). The film makes no attempt to capture the full scope of the war, instead choosing a microscopic approach by focusing on two people. Danijel (Goran Kostic) and Ajla (Zana Marjanovic) are dancing cozily in a club when a bomb shatters their date and their lives. Danijel goes on to become a mid-level military leader of the Serbs, while Ajla and her Muslim family and friends are torn apart, some even executed. Ajla ends up as a prisoner at the camp Danijel commands. He manages to protect her from the brutal rapes by soldiers by staking a claim on her and putting the order out that she is not to be touched. Ajla is an artist and Danijel is a soldier and their earlier dance evolves into a psychological battle of wits, mistrust and escape. Danijel is clearly not of the mindset to be a brutal killer within a war, yet Ajla constantly observes his every movement and even the slightest change in his approach to her and the war. She does what she needs to survive and he uses her as an escape from the atrocities of his day job. The end result of this relationship is both shocking and inevitable. Danijel's father, Nebojsa, is a senior level military leader who shows up in time to provide us with a brief history lesson dating back 600 years. He takes much pride in the Serbs ability to persevere. Nebojsa is played by Rade Serbedzija, whom many will recognize as the villain from The Saint (1997) and Boris the Blade in Snatch (2000). This is a powerful and frightening character, and we quickly understand why he doubts his son's fortitude. When he finds out about Ajla, we immediately know things are going to get ugly. After the screening, we were fortunate enough to have a discussion panel sponsored by the World Affairs Council. One of the panel members was a former officer in the Bosnian Army who spent time in two separate concentration camps. Viewing the film was very emotional for him and he said it captured the realities as well as a movie possibly could. Of course, we never lose sight of the fact that what we see on screen are not "real" bullets, not "real" rape, and not "real" blood. Purposefully held to the end of my comments is the announcement that the film is written, directed and produced by Angelina Jolie. We are aware of her humanitarian efforts and here she works diligently to tell a story that exposes the realities of war and how humanity can disappear. It's not a perfect film (it runs a bit long), but it tells a powerful story that many of us prefer to pretend doesn't exist. As with the Bosnia and Herzegovina citizens, we can't help but wonder what took NATO forces so long to get involved. Capped by an understated and haunting Gabriel Yared score, the film is tough to watch, but also a brutal reminder that war is the ultimate sacrifice and punishment for real people and real families.

I'd have to somewhat agree with those who think that this is more or less Angelina Jolie's very own Schindler's List and there's a bit of Romeo & Juliet element to it as well, and just like the Shakespearean classic itself, this too is a tragedy. Quite ambitious and daring for a feature directorial debut but I wasn't completely surprised because this film came from an Oscar winning actress whose humanitarian work, especially for this region, has been very passionate. Jolie's future as a filmmaker looks promising.. Jolie doesn't hold back in her effort to show how brutal the Bosnian war was. The environment looks authentic and harsh. And just like Spielberg's 1993 Oscar winning film, IN THE LAND OF BLOOD AND HONEY also invests most of its time going into details about the killings and the disregard for human life. The raping scenes would be uncomfortable for some to watch. I remember I attended the press screening, it was already a few minutes into the movie and at the door there was a person who I thought at first was the studio's rep but then she told me she was a fellow press member and she was there just to wait until the rape scene ended so she could then re-enter the room and watch the rest of the film. Some may argue that this is a one sided story, everybody is entitled to their opinion, if this was indeed a movie that's pro Bosnian Muslim or pro Serb, I wouldn't be able to tell because what I saw was both sides killing each other and none of them was the better. I think Jolie is just angry at the fact that the international community did not intervene in time to stop the genocide or the ethnic cleansing, and that anger is shared by many. This is film is her showing how bad things can get when good me do nothing. And that's basically the aim of IN THE LAND OF BLOOD AND HONEY. The backdrop is the Bosnian war but right at the heart of the story are two key characters, Danijel played by a Bosnian Serb actor named Goran Kostic and the other is Ajla played by a Bosnian named Zana Marjanovic. They became representations of the two opposing sides and they're both played by solid actors, Kostic has that arresting presence about him, he could be sympathetic at one point, because he's stuck between loyalty to his father and his love for Ajla, but at another point he could also be distant. Kostic's emotional range is wide and the same goes with Marjanovic, who is absolutely captivating. At one point she makes you believe that her character Ajla is the protagonist, at another point she makes you feel like she may be untrustworthy. It's a very complicated love story because what those two characters have is not exactly true love, despite whatever feeling they have for each other, Danijel badly wanted Ajla to be a Serb and Ajla knows that she's sleeping with the enemy. The line between the oppressor and the oppressed gets blurred and everyone is guilty.

Angelina Jolie to me now, is an excellent Director, she made everybody feel this one. Its true, It's honest and real. Angelina Jolie made it a ride everybody wants to be on. What she has done here is Incredible. Its Outstanding and the Texture of this movie is Great. Although it could have been a little more Intense. The reason for me saying this is Jolie made the Honey Obvious, but the blood didn't show. However, Everybody should jump in and take sometime to watch this Outstanding Foreign film and See that Jolie made a film that will most likely be a Classic for a lot of people. Angelina Jolie is an Outstanding actress and now a Rising Director.

After watching this movie, all that I can say is that Angelina should not try to direct again. The movie is bad on so many levels, but it's the directing that clearly failed the most. First, the few positives about the movie. Casting is solid, actors do a decent job even with the awful script they had, but they clearly struggle to act in English. Camera work is solid, every now and then we see an interesting shot. Now, the negatives that are too many to number. The script is god damn awful, many times it makes no sense at all. It's trying to portray complexities of the main characters, but does it in a horribly cheesy and uninspiring way. Making this kind of war drama that braids the story of few characters with the broader context of war is very hard, but when done successfully, it has resulted in some of the world's most memorable movies. This is not one of them. It starts with a good idea, but then it fails in so many ways. First, it is horribly historically inaccurate and I don't mean just in the way that Serbs are wearing Hungarian throwback uniforms (because Bosnian authorities angered with insulting script have kicked the Angelina's crew out of Bosnia and the movie had to be shot in Hungary) or the wrong color of Yugoslavian passports, or the wrong weaponry which is used the wrong way, or the wrong number of reported war victims mentioned in the movie, etc. Movie manages to go into whole new, almost metaphysical level of historical inaccuracy. For instance, every Serb that we see in the movie (that we know is a Serb) wears a uniform. There is not a single Serb civilian in the whole movie. Even at the start, when two main characters go on a date, the Serb is wearing his police uniform. My god Angelina, do you know that policeman are not allowed to wear uniforms off duty? And what cop would want to go on a date wearing his beat uniform? Somewhere around the half movie finally manages to pick up a little and establish some sort of narrative flow, which is why I won't give it 1/10. But even that little good about it gets ruined by the end. Since this was supposed to be a spin on the old Romeo and Juliette tale, it made a lot of sense to finish the story in the similar way, but no, Angelina opted for the least logical ending possible.

Let me start with well done Angelina. This is her first movie, and I think she did well. As a person who is pretty much involved in politics, I found the movie very accurate. I would defiantly say that it was educational as well. There would be no better person to direct such movie and do it better than Angelina, given her work experience in the field. She was looking at the events that took place in the Balkans as an outsider, I would like to say she was the judge, and she decided that the Muslims were the main victims, hence, the movie portrayed that. I liked the part when they briefly explained the one of the grudges that the Serbs and Croats held against the Muslims, I wont share that information of course, as I do not want to spoil the movie. I could hear people in the theater crying and clapping at the same time. I do not think the movie was bias towards any side. Angelina, did portray the good and bad throughout history of each side, and that love is possible under any circumstance.

I was invited to see this film back in July. At the time it was a secret screening. They wouldn't tell us the name of the movie, let alone who directed it. When I find out later it was directed by Angelina Jolie , I was impressed. She did a great job capturing the atrocities of war and the lowest depths of humanity here. The movie basically shows us the events leading to, during, and after the Bosnian war from the perspective of a Serb and a Bosnian who as it so happens are lovers. The lovers are Ajla and Danijel both excellently played by Goran Kostic and Zana Marjanovic . At first Danijel is very hesitant about carrying his orders as a Serb soldier. At first, but this doesn't last long. He either carries out or orders other members of his team to carry some barbaric actions on the Bosnian civilians they find from either rape, torture, to eventual death. When you see what happens you are going instantly think back to the Nazi's and what they did to Jews in the name of ethnic cleansing. Eventually, we see through Danijel's lead, genocide being committed at every turn. Ajla is captured, but she is treated like royalty (again at first) with no one else being able to touch or come near here except Danijel. This love story though has no happy ending as Ajla sees Danijel for what he is, not an unwilling participant in the war, but an active and willing agitator in one of the most chronicled bloodbaths recorded in Europe. "In the land of Blood and Honey" is a superb war movie showing the type of atrocities that the Serbs were accused off while the United Nations and United States did nothing to stop it until the end. Angelina Jolie's second directorial debut is impressive. No shot is ever wasted, every shot and scene sets up something very important. The actors are all excellent. This could easily get several Academy nominations come Oscar time. All in war a very brutal, but realistic depiction of another bloody war in history.

It was just too much to watch this film. Not in sense of what it wants to say but time wise. Wanted to leave around half time but was together with friends so stayed. I recommend you not to bother watching it as it has nothing to offer that a European does not know about the Jugoslavian war. From the perspective of romantic storyline it is also very shallow. The unfortunate thing about this film is that a talented actress tried to make a film with quite a good cast, but none of them will be looking back at it proudly. Money not too well spent (meaning here the budget of film and the price I paid for the ticket).

It has been years since I saw a narrative film deal as honestly on the subject of war as this excellent work. I'm sure Angelina will take some flak for this film, but no good deed goes unpunished, as they say. And this is a truly brave film, and I think an honest and affecting film, that I hope everyone will have the opportunity to see. This film is not about the condemnation of one or another group of people, this film is about the human poverty that war and ethnic hatred visits on all who come in come in contact with it. This film is also about what might have been, and what still may be - a peace among people, and a love for our brothers and sisters. Thank you, to all those good people who joined together to make this film.

source: In the Land of Blood and Honey

I rate 10/10, even though in reality it's a 7/10 for this movie. But, so many people are writing absurd and redundantly nonsensical information in these comments because you're taking this a movie as a personal/national insult directed at you by Angelina. THIS IS NOT TRUE. This is NOT a one sided view of the war. THIS IS A VERY VERY VERY GOOD representation what happened during the SIEGE OF SARAJEVO. She is not trying to cover the entire war, but the SIEGE OF SARAJEVO and the mistreatment of women. All of that did happen during the war.. Stop flooding this website with skewed and primitive personal beliefs of what happened during the Balkans wars, this MOVIE IS NOT ABOUT THAT. This movie is about Sarajevo during the war, and it is just absolutely ridiculous to deny any of the mentioned in the movie, we all know it happened.. That being said, I enjoyed watching the movie, even though I thought that the acting could have been somewhat better. The storyline has some good and unexpected twists, and it leaves you attentive throughout the entire movie. Thumbs up for that. For a first timer I thought Angelina did a very good job, and the characters in the movie had a very good emotional vs rational vs compulsory feelings conflict representation. Good job Angelina, hopefully this primitive behavior of Balkaners in these comments won't discourage your activism in this field. Cheers