In the Land of Blood and Honey adorns the name “Angelina Jolie” across its marketing materials, but don’t expect to see the seraphic starlet pop up on screen. Jolie makes her directorial debut with the Bosnian war film, a powerful drama that strives for realism in its use of homegrown talent, the setting’s native tongue and graphic depictions of violence. The goal of the movie is apparent: the genocide committed across the Balkan region in the early ’90s was all but swept under the rug, and Jolie is ready to unleash those horrific truths upon willing audiences. In the Land of Blood and Honey pulls no punches. The movie is terrifying and provocative, telling a conventional love story only as a way of connecting with the mainstream. War is ugly, and Jolie’s film presents it truthfully.
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Ajla (Zana Marjanovic) and Danijel (Goran Kostic) are two Bosnians in
the beginnings of a relationship—one that is eventually cut short by
the eruption of conflict. Danijel, a Serb police officer, is recruited
by his militant leader father Nebojsa (Rade Serbedzija) to join the Serb
Army, whose goal is wipe the country clean of Bosnian Muslims. He’s
eventually reunited with Ajla, after she’s captured by the Serbs and
incarcerated in a concentration camp. There she is subjected to mental
and physical torture, serving the Serbs as they return from
systematically wiping out her people and routinely being the target of
their sexual abuse. Before finding himself whisked away on reassignment,
Danijel clues Ajla into an escape route, which sends the prisoner on a
journey through the war-torn country, in hopes of reuniting with her
family, and possibly, Danijel.
While the Romeo and Juliet-esque romance between Danijel and Ajla
adds to the weight of the situation, it never feels like the focus of In
the Land of Blood and Honey. Rather than developing the complexity of
the duo, Jolie uses her characters as emotional proxies, which works as a
window into the unimaginable events of the war. Marjanovic and Kostic
deliver compelling performances as Danijel and Ajla–both characters
struggle with what they’re romantic actions with one another mean to
their respective causes—but even with their thread, the real drama comes
from the world around them.
There’s no safety filter on the gut-wrenching atrocities Jolie puts
on display: lines of Bosnian Muslims stripped naked and executed, women
seized by the Serbs and used as human shields, and hidden refugees
sacrificing their own just to remain concealed. The film is shot simply,
but the images speak for themselves. At times, the
character/dialogue-driven moments feel more like necessary pit stops
before the next harrowing sequence—even in introspective moments, like a
scene in which Danijel contemplates and resists sniping a nearby
enemy—but without them, the movie would lack the necessary truth of the
final product.
In the Land of Blood and Honey is a complicated film, one that
doesn’t entirely work as an act of storytelling, but whose end goal is a
grisly success. Jolie’s commitment to history makes the film a brave
work of art and a must-see. Blood and Honey will leave you shaken, and
it’s an experience you owe yourself to have.
Rating : 4/5 – The Lady is Back with a Bang
Movie Review In The Land of Blood and Honey English Film 2011
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