Au pays du sang et du miel

There's something in the air these days with military related, history based dramas about conflict hitting our shores all at the same time. There's Act of Valor and its war on terror against a fictional opposition, and both 5 Days of War and The Land of Blood and Honey take on a look back at the 2008 Russo-Georgian conflict and the 1992-1995 Bosnian War respectively, weaving a fictional story in front of an historical backdrop, the former aligning itself closer to an action film, and this one being a more dramatic take that deals with a forbidden romance.

Written, directed and co-produced by Angelina Jolie, one wonders what went through her thought process when she decided to take up duties and responsibilities from behind the camera instead of in front of it, and to have one's directorial feature debut deal with such a heavy topic about genocide, sexual violence, and the inner beasts that mankind has the propensity to turn into when fighting for beliefs, regardless whether right or wrong. I suppose being a UN ambassador had exposed her to various peacekeeping and charitable causes around the globe, and something must have triggered that spark within her to come up with a troubled romance story set amidst one of the worst times in human history. She doesn't shy away from graphic portrayal of the many atrocities committed by the aggressors, and showed how humanity can crumble into nonchalance through murky politics, and when it decides to sit back from the outside and do nothing.

That's the macro picture, and the film balances it with a micro look at a more personal level through the eyes of the protagonists, Serbian Danijel (Goran Kostic) and Bosnian Ajla (Zana Marjanovic), who begins the film looking very optimistic and expectant of her date with the former, at a time of peace and tranquility if not for a bomb blast to signal the end of harmony, and a prelude of the unimaginable and inexplicable violence to come. Not before long the land is plunged into civil war, with Bosnian civilians bearing the brunt of it in what would be genocide and ethnic cleansing. As it turns out, Ajla and her family become victims, while as fate would have it for Danijel to actually be a Serbian captain under the strict, uncompromising orders from his military father, and their paths to cross when Ajla got arrested and forced into labour in a camp, if not for Danijel to come to her aid, claiming her to be his property to starve off any sexual advances from his men.

The romance here is something that drifted into mediocrity with this protection accorded not going down well amongst the ranks, and Danijel getting into a love-hate relationship of sorts with Ajla, where in times much better than the present, would have evolved into something more beautiful than forceful. It's an open secret love affair that grew, and brought to life only by Zana Marjanovic's strong performance as a woman out to survive her ordeal. Marjanovic brings about a balance in both vulnerability and steely strength in her character of Ajla, who has to decide on her emotions, whether or not she can literally fall in love and be sleeping with the enemy, while Kostic's own performance deals with the ability to show compassion, or be seduced by a master-slave power that overwhelms, and slowly but surely corrupts and spirals into obsessive suspicion and paranoia.

What became more intriguing as the narrative wore on, was the similarities with Ang Lee's Lust, Caution in the second half of the film, where a woman found herself tasked to do a job to make a stand for the oppressed and her people, given her natural charms and close proximity to do so. The conflicts of emotions, and the suspense, especially since how a scheme sans details got mooted served as an inflection point, and will leave you guessing whether will she, or won't she, and even then, how it can actually all take place since she's isolated almost all the time in a fortified location, and we aren't in the clear of any details if any were discussed at all, given the apparent vagueness. The final scene between Danijel and Ajla is intense and will serve as a talking point given the quick, convenient and inevitable way to closure.

But like 5 Days of War, this film is fairly lop-sided in its politics, so focus not on that but on the relationship that is Romeo-and-Juliet-ish involving star crossed lovers from opposite sides of the land trying to keep the flickering flame of their love affair alive amongst the chaos and destruction around them.

Bad story, bad acting, boring. One of the worst films I ever watched. Films with Chuck Norris deserve golden globe comparing to this.

Written by Markus Robinson, Edited by Nicole I. Ashland Before I begin,

I would like to preface this review by saying that I am in no way an expert on the Bosnian War. So, before I receive any hate mail from angry Bosnian's or Serbian's about how I am just a stupid American who is criticizing events that I didn't live through, please realize that I am not criticizing Bosnian's or Serbians or war tactics or cultural differences. My job is to criticize FILMS!!! Angelina Jolie hates Serbians, there I said it! I am joking of course, she loves all races. Angelina Jolie (Salt) receives her first writing and feature film directing credits here in "In the Land of Blood and Honey"; a film that is surprisingly almost entirely in Serbian and Bosnian. There has been some controversy (at least there was for a few months) about this actually being an idea Jolie stole and called her own. But after all is said and done, whether or not she came up with the original idea will be the least controversial aspect to arise from this film. Starring Zana Marjanovic and Goran Kostic, it is not the acting which drags this film down, it is the storyline Jolie chooses to focus on instead of a straight forward war story. Chronicling the systematic encampment, rape and slaughter of the Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) ethnic group during the Bosnian War sounds like some very compelling and powerful material, and "In the Land of Blood and Honey" would have been compelling and powerful, if that was what the movie was about. Instead we get a love story, set in the Bosian War between a high ranking male Bosnian Serb soldier (Kostic) named Danijel and his female Bosniak prisoner (Marjanovic) named Ajla, and a very unsatisfying love story at that. In fact the few instances when the story turns its focus from Ajla to her sister, who has not been captured and is attempting to build a resistance against the Serbs, the film becomes far more interesting and gritty. So much so, that an argument could be made about how Ajla's sister would have made a more realistic and compelling focus for this full length feature film than Ajla herself. Furthermore, without Ajla's sister's subplot, "In the Land of Blood and Honey" is a war film that only lightly dabbles in the brutality of war for less than a third of the movie and then it's back to the flimsy love story. In the end, Jolie attempts to address the political, brutal and cultural elements that make war so complex, but spends far, far, far too much time telling the remedial Romeo and Juliet love story between Danijel and Ajla. I am not against love stories by any means, but to have an average love story set during a fairly recent war, where genocide, rape, and political cover-ups took place, the love story aspect tends to take away (or dumb down) every other important point the film is attempting to make. This is kind of like having a hardcore love story in "Schindler's List". It just doesn't work.

What will undoubtedly anger mass audiences the most: Because of the way Jolie structures her film, the tone inevitably does come off as one sided in the same way the aforementioned "Schindler's List" does. Which in and of itself isn't bad, i.e. Nazi's are horrible people. But because "In the Land of Blood and Honey" is a far less developed film, the "all Serbian's (except for one) are inherently ruthless and cruel" mentality this film encourages, comes off as unnaturally skewed especially to those (like me) who are unfamiliar with the in-depth events of the Bosnian War. Now I am not saying that the Serbs in this film, who are shown ethnically cleansing a mass group of Muslims, were not horrible people, BUT the way this movie presents an entire race (The Serbs) as irrational and blood-thirsty, could be perceived as quite one sided. And for that reason, I can see many audiences finding this the most off-putting aspect of "In the Land of Blood and Honey". But then again, I am not a critic of wars.

Final Thought: I will give Jolie some credit here for manufacturing some brilliant shots (mostly the war scenes) that work to show her talent behind a camera. But much as Jolie tries, it seems as if she knows more about the logistics of a love story than about creating a compelling war film. Not to say that "In the Land of Blood and Honey" isn't a watchable effort, and does minimally redeem itself in the final two scenes of the film, BUT how this film was nominated for a Golden Globe only proves that the Hollywood Foreign Press will do anything to hang out with big stars.

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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).

In the Land of Blood and Honey passed almost unnoticed among viewers and critics alike, except in the countries that emerged from the former Yugoslavia, where it created a considerable controversy.

In order to understand this, we'd have to explain the history of Balkans and origins of civil war that led to the collapse of Yugoslavia. But even the executive summary of such a story would take up more time than Angelina Jolie's feature film directorial debut.

So if you ignore historical background and accuracy, this is essentially a bad movie. The script is idiotic and acting mediocre. In order to make the movie more realistic the characters talk in English with local dialect. This might be convincing to the average viewer but sounds stupid to anyone who knows this part of the world.

The only good thing is the atmosphere at the beginning of the conflict, where most of the people believed the war would be over in a matter of weeks.

I find it remarkable that a star like Angelina Jolie devotes her times to humanitarian work and tells the world the untold stories of human suffering. At the same time it is regrettable that such stories are biased according to the current dogma envisioned by international politics and media. According to that, it is crystal clear who the good guys are and they should be absolved from all wrongdoing. On the other hand, for the supposed misdeeds of the bad guys the whole population of their country should be punished until eternity.

This is black-and-white image of the world which, in my opinion, is against the founding principles of UNHCR, where Angelina Jolie holds a distinguished post.