Global News Post: Drama

Hollywood Films Focus on Women Abused in Bosnian War

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">By Alan Silverman from Hollywood<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhooWcoxDxgCIhYioM1-GlcSJypiAjDlRIuyWVJIj0bgvpcFgtCJPbYyiZ5On25mWWzf1hjcLb3TqccDKRagR63NvfFYtF4-MzRDQSSiMjUao3UD3sY5ufI7LFHsvBaalMZYgwV65snPcA/s1600/In%252BThe%252BLand%252Bof%252BBlood%252BAnd%252BHoney%252BScene%252B480.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhooWcoxDxgCIhYioM1-GlcSJypiAjDlRIuyWVJIj0bgvpcFgtCJPbYyiZ5On25mWWzf1hjcLb3TqccDKRagR63NvfFYtF4-MzRDQSSiMjUao3UD3sY5ufI7LFHsvBaalMZYgwV65snPcA/s1600/In%252BThe%252BLand%252Bof%252BBlood%252BAnd%252BHoney%252BScene%252B480.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Photo: Ken Regan <i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Photo </span>©<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"> VOA</span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"> News</span></span></i></span></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Zana Marjanovic in a scene from " In the Land of Blood and Honey "</span></div></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Angelina Jolie makes her directing debut with a powerful drama set amid the "ethnic cleansing" of the Bosnian War. The drama, and another film on the atrocities in Bosnia, are drawn from true stories of brutality toward women in that 1990's conflict.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/exncU6xSDIw" width="640"></iframe> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">"Who were you …before the war?" asks Serbian commander Danijel of his captive, a Muslim woman named Ajila from Sarajevo. Their complicated relationship plays out during In The Land of Blood and Honey, written and directed by actress and human rights activist Angelina Jolie.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">"I just wanted to tell a story about human beings from all sides and how war affects them," explains Jolie.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Her visits to refugee camps and war zones as United Nations goodwill ambassador motivated Jolie to research and write the script about the systematic rapes and murders during the Bosnian conflict.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpkpptMMRIIsjci-m9r6roO9SH_tOrnwmHiGeMMIKuBcLKK4pIEeQE9tLkv4Gonun7UGoaWgvmkHxDMb103Yj8jxTxcbzKsuEjuNkkr5mITcF48QMf67E__d5yEgJ1VQEgWC5pIBAWWB4/s1600/ALB%252BANGELINA%252BJOLIE%252B300x300.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></i><i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 8pt;">Angelina Jolie talks about "In The <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Land</st1:placetype>  of </st1:place></span></i></div><div align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 8pt;"><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Blood And Honey</st1:placename></st1:place>"</span></i><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> Photo </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 8.0pt;">©</span></i><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> VOA</span></i><span class="apple-style-span"><i><span style="background: white; font-size: 8.0pt;"> News</span></i></span><i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 8pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="clear: right; float: right; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">"When I started to look into it and I traveled to the region, I felt that I should have known more. This was in my generation and how do I not know enough? And why did it take us so long? Then at some point there was this script and it just sat on my desk for a while until Brad saw it one day and convinced me to show it to somebody and try," Jolie says.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">'Brad,' of course, is her husband and fellow celebrity, Brad Pitt. Concerned that it might appear to be a Hollywood star's 'vanity' project, Jolie kept her name off the script that was initially sent to cast members like Zana Marjanovic, who plays Ajila.  </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">"I think, first of all, that it's a very truthful representation of Bosnia. I am from a mixed marriage," notes Marjanovic.  "A lot of my friends are. And it's about all these beautiful things that could have happened between these people and the war made it impossible. That's actually my personal feeling toward the country where I was born and where I live now."</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Serbian actors play the militia men who brutalize their Muslim women captives. Goran Kostic co-stars as Danijel, the troubled commander and Ajila's lover. He says his character does not represent all Serbians. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">"The guilt is individual. We can not possibly blame a side and say all of the Serbs are the same or vice versa. I think everybody understands the nature of conflict, that no side is a clean side or the 'right' side. But we as artists have a duty to criticize ourselves, and I would expect that other artists from different groups in different countries would have the same strength and courage to criticize themselves."</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/lphJH2Wfsjw" width="640"></iframe></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In The Land of Blood and Honey is not the only cinematic portrayal of brutality against women during the Bosnian War. As If I Am Not There is based on a novel by Croatian journalist Slavenka Drakulic. It was made into a film by Irish writer-director Juanita Wilson.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">"I think there are so many people living with the devastating consequences that it will take a long time for it to heal," Wilson says, "but I firmly believe that telling stories is a really important part of healing and until people have that voice and can portray what has happened to them, that there never will be any understanding between any of us on this planet." </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Like Wilson, Jolie hopes her film can help bring understanding.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">"I hope it brings dialogue in the region and around the world …and that people remember this time," Jolie says. "Many people who have seen the film said to me 'I feel ashamed' and there are many people who should."</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Angelina Jolie's In The Land of Blood and Honey is currently at American theaters. Juanita Wilson's As If I Am Not There is Ireland's submission for this year's Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. ---VOA News</span></div></div>

Hollywood Films Focus on Women Abused in Bosnian War

By Alan Silverman from Hollywood Photo: Ken Regan Photo © VOA News Zana Marjanovic in a scene from " In the Land of Blood and H...

Angelina Jolie Makes Directorial Debut with 'In the Land of Blood and Honey'

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="apple-style-span"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-size: 8pt;">By </span></b></span><span class="apple-style-span"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-size: 8pt;">Alex Villarreal </span></b></span><span class="apple-style-span"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-size: 8pt;">from</span></b></span><span class="apple-style-span"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-size: 8pt;"> <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:state></span></b></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">American movie star Angelina Jolie is making her directorial debut with a film set during <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bosnia</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s civil war in the 1990s. In an exclusive interview with VOA's Bosnian service, Jolie says the message of the film, titled In the Land of Blood and Honey, is one of tolerance and understanding. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">Angelina Jolie is used to being in front of the camera. But for her latest project, the Academy Award-winning actress stepped behind it... and into the brutality of wartime <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bosnia</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">"The more I learned about it and the more I read about it, the more angry I got about the lack of intervention," Jolie says,  "the more emotional I was about the violence against women. And I wanted to do a film that would help to look into the relationships between not just a couple, but also sisters, and fathers and sons, and mothers and children."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">Jolie wrote as well as directed In the Land of Blood and Honey. It is a love story between a Muslim woman and a Serb man during Bosnia-Herzogovina's bloody, three-year ethnic conflict.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">Jolie says she hopes the film sparks discussion about the war and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bosnia</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s continued struggle since the 1995 peace agreement.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">"I want people to remember <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bosnia</st1:place></st1:country-region>, and I want them to remember what happened, and I want them to pay respect to all of the people who survived, and today, to remember that this country still has so much healing to do,” she explains.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">As a United Nations goodwill ambassador, the mother of six and partner to Brad Pitt often brings her influence as an actress to global issues. But this time is different. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">"This film is the first time that these worlds have collided for me," Jolie says, "so this film means more to me than any film I’ve ever made."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">A film festival in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo honored Jolie earlier this year, despite initial criticism from Bosnian sexual violence victims and a lawsuit alleging she stole plot pieces from a book. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">She credits her Bosnian cast and war victims, organizations and officials she consulted with the result.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">"It’s not an American film made about <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bosnia</st1:place></st1:country-region>. It’s a film made with one American and many Bosnians and many people from the area, and we made it together," she says.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">In the <st1:placetype w:st="on">Land</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Blood</st1:placename> and Honey opens in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> theaters on December 23. It has two versions: one in English, the other in the Bosnian language.</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;"> ---VOA News</span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #cc0000;"><b>Watch Related Video</b></span></span></div></div><br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="305" src="http://www.voanews.com/templates/widgetDisplay.html?id=135312348&player=article" width="480"></iframe></div>

Angelina Jolie Makes Directorial Debut with 'In the Land of Blood and Honey'

By Alex Villarreal from Washington American movie star Angelina Jolie is making her directorial debut with a film set during Bosnia ...