In the Land of Blood and Honey

Writer and Director: Angelina Jolie

Casts: Goran Kostic, Zana Marjanovic, Rade Serbedzija

A war can change everything. This is actually a love story between Danijel (Goran Kostic), a Bosnian Serb police officer and Ajla (pronounced Ayla) (Zana Marjanovic), a Bosnian Muslim Artist. They are together before the war but their relationship is changed as violence engulfs the country. In the Land of Blood and Honey is set against the backdrop of the Bosnian war that tore the Balkan region apart in the 1990s. 

The movie is Jolie's directorial debut. Despite the controversials that follow the movie such as certain Serbs thought the movie isn't balanced, a writer sued Jolie as the plagiarist of his work, and also the uniforms, military equipment, weapon of the Bosnian Serb Army shown in the movie are said inaccurate and never seen in the war in the former Yugoslavia, I still consider this movie as something.

As we all know, the war never brings any good. For me this movie brings even more frightening description. How horrible an ethnis cleansing was. Anyhow it needs a strong heart to see this movie. You'll find mass executions, raped, being used as human shield and all the other horrors are easily conducted and shown in the movie. Although Jolie shows many unique and artistic scenes but still the gloomy ambience is there.

Nevertheless I salute Jolie for her debut movie. It is not just an ordinary movie. It is special since it needs a deep research and hard work to put this war story into a movie. I watched the movie several days ago but it still leaves me with mixed feeling and just lingers in my mind up till now.