In the Land of Blood and Honey () is a 2011 war drama film written, produced, and directed by Angelina Jolie, and starring Zana Marjanović, Goran Kostić and Rade Šerbedžija. The film, Jolie's first commercial release as a director, depicts a love story set against the background of the Bosnian War. It opened in the United States on December 23, 2011, in a limited theatrical release."Movie fans get glimpse of Jolie's 'Blood and Honey'". Reuters. October 21, 2011.
Plot In Sarajevo, 1992, Ajla Ekmečić is an ethnic Bosniak artist and lives with her sister, Lejla, who is a single mother of a baby boy. One evening, she meets her boyfriend, ethnic Serb police officer Danijel Vukojević, at a club. They enjoy the evening together, but many of the patrons are killed and Danijel is badly injured when the club is destroyed by artillery fire, signifying the opening salvo of the Bosnian War.
Some months later, Ajla and Lejla prepare to flee the now besieged city, but their neighborhood is occupied by the Army of Republika Srpska before they can escape. The men are separated from the women to be executed while Ajla and several other younger, more attractive women are taken away on buses to a Serb rape camp.
In the camp, the soldiers instruct the women on what life will be like and then ask the women what sort of duties they can perform. A doctor named Esma volunteers to perform medical services. Another woman says she can sew; rather than use her skills, an officer rapes her in front of the other women to demoralize them. Before another soldier can do the same to Ajla, the camp's commander takes her away, where it is revealed he is none other than Danijel.
The former couple struggle to grasp the magnitude of their predicament, especially given that inter-ethnic relationships are forbidden, and any evidence of such a relationship could compromise both Danijel and his father Nebojša, a General of the VRS Main Staff. Danijel tells Ajla that to shelter her from sexual abuse at the hands of the other soldiers, he has said that she is his "personal property." Danijel quickly learns he is to be transferred to another military base in Sarajevo, and tells Ajla how to escape in his absence. She succeeds the second time.
Ajla shelters herself in the forest outside the city, where she is found by Bosniak guerrilla forces, who take her back to their camp. In the camp, she happily reunites with Lejla, though this happiness is short-lived when Lejla informs her that her baby was murdered by Bosnian Serb forces some months earlier, sending her into inconsolable grief. Over a campfire, the guerrillas lament the paradoxical insanity of the war, one in particular pointing out that despite the events of the war, he cannot hate all Serbs as his mother is a Serb. Lejla then agrees, and says she only hates the nationalistic Serbs. At this moment, it's found out that Ajla was Danijel's prisoner and lover, and the guerrillas concoct a plan for her to get captured by Danijel's men in order to gain proximity to him, and therefore act as a mole.
Falling for the bait, Danijel orders his men to capture Ajla under the guise of her being Danijel's painter. They end up rekindling their relationship, but Danijel's orders to his men to leave her alone are deemed suspicious. Thus, Nebojša learns of Ajla's existence and the special treatment she receives. While Danijel is at the front line, Nebojša visits Ajla and orders her to paint a portrait of him. While she paints, he criticizes the "Muslim decadence" of such a career, which contrasts starkly with his own mother, a lifelong farm labourer widowed during World War II. Ajla counters that her grandfather was a Partisan, and that he taught her as a child that the constituent peoples of Yugoslavia are all equal irrespective of ethnicity. Nebojša smirks at her observation then leaves her alone with a soldier, Petar, who violently rapes her.
Danijel returns from the front line to find a distraught Ajla crying in the shower. Believing that she has cheated on him, he assaults her, but then sees his father's unfinished portrait and knows what has transpired. Danijel lures Petar to a hill above the city, then kills him. He then confronts his father, who attacks him and berates him for disgracing the family, saying "your mother would turn over in her grave if she knew you liked to fuck Muslim whores."
A sense of normalcy descends on Ajla and Danijel up until the events at Srebrenica. As NATO forces prepare to launch an offensive against the Serbs, Nebojša convenes a meeting with other commanders at a church. Danijel tells Ajla of this meeting, as well as where it was located, and how he would send her a message if he turns out to be safe. At the church, Danijel narrowly avoids being killed alongside his father when a massive explosion destroys the church. Waking up in a haze from the explosion, Danijel sees Lejla across the street and realizes Ajla had betrayed him.
In conjunction with the bombing, ARBiH forces simultaneously launch a counter-offensive. Danijel hastily organizes his troops to halt their advance, but the Serb forces are decimated and most of his men are killed. Danijel returns to the now abandoned camp and finds Ajla patiently waiting. He confronts and beats her for helping to orchestrate the bombing, and she admits to it by apologizing—despite the apology seeming ingenuine. Danijel shoots and kills Ajla instantly.
Danijel wanders through the wreckage of the city, which is now near liberation. Perhaps realizing what the war has driven him to become, and that it was all for nothing, he breaks down in tears on the street in front of UNPROFOR personnel. He admits to being a war criminal, and it's presumed they subsequently arrest him shortly afterwards.
Cast
Production Jolie got the idea to write a script of a wartime love story after traveling to Bosnia and Herzegovina as a U.N. goodwill ambassador. While writing the script she consulted with Richard Holbrooke, a U.S. diplomat and high-ranking Clinton administration official who was one of the architects of the Dayton Agreement that put an end to the Bosnian War, General Wesley Clark, who was the director for strategic plans and policy on the United States Department of Defense's Joint Chiefs of Staff during the war, and Tom Gjelten, a foreign correspondent for NPR.Behind the Camera, but Still the Star;The New York Times, December 6, 2011 After finishing the screenplay, she secured a production team and financing for the project that was being called "Untitled Bosnian Love Story." When it came down for the production team to choose a director, Jolie realized she herself wanted to direct. When casting calls and auditions were held, her name was deliberately withheld from all aspects of the project. When it was revealed to the cast that Angelina Jolie wrote the script, a number of them expressed pleasant surprise.Angelina Jolie On 'In The Land Of Blood And Honey,' Authenticity In Serbia The Huffington Post. December 5, 2011.Casting Authenticity – Angelina Jolie’s “In the Land of Blood and Honey”. Toonari Post. December 10, 2011.
In July 2010, with the film already in pre-production, the producers approached the Serbian tycoon and media magnate Željko Mitrović over the usage of the sound stages and studio sets owned by his Pink International Company's subsidiary Pink Films International in Šimanovci.;Indo-Asian News Service, July 15, 2010 However, he refused to do business with them, releasing a press statement: "I've held great affection and admiration for Angelina Jolie both as a person and as an artist, but unfortunately she's full of prejudice against the Serbs. I do not wish to be part of something that for the umpteenth time presents the Serbs as eternal bad guys."Željko Mitrović odbio Angelinu Jolie: Ne želi biti dio njezinog projekta;Dnevnik.hr, July 14, 2010Angelina Jolie Defends Her Bosnian Movie Plans ;AOL, October 15, 2010
The film was shot in Budapest and Esztergom during October and November 2010.Filming locations for In the Land of Blood and HoneyIMDb. Retrieved December 11, 2011 The cast were entirely local actors from various parts of former Yugoslavia, many of whom lived through the war."Angelina Jolie, who won't appear in the film, plans to employ local actors from the Bosnia and Herzegovina area" MovieInsider.com. Retrieved November 23, 2011 Jolie said she spoke with the cast about their experiences during the war and tried to incorporate them into the film.Angelina Jolie relied on cast for advice NZCity.co.nz. Retrieved December 11, 2011 The film was also shot in two versions – one in English, the other in Serbo-Croatian."In the Land of Blood and Honey Trailer: For Angelina Jolie, Love Is a Battlefield ". NYMAG.com. October 23, 2011.
Jolie explained the reason she wrote and directed the film was to rekindle attention for the survivors of a war that took place in recent history."In the Land of Blood and Honey: Angelina Jolie and the Bosnian War" International Business Times. October 23, 2011. In an interview with Christiane Amanpour, Jolie said she felt a responsibility to learn about the conflict in great detail, adding, "This was, you know, the worst genocide since World War II in Europe ... What were we all doing? And did we do enough? And why do we not speak about this enough?"Jolie hailed for war film debut Yahoo! 7News. December 12, 2011. Responding to claims that her film was not balanced, she stated that "The war was not balanced. I can't understand people who are looking for a balance that did not exist. There are some people who don't want to be reminded of these things, some even who deny that these things even happened. Those people are going to be angry."Little, Allan. Emotional showing in Sarajevo for Jolie's war film, BBC. Accessed February 15, 2012.
During production, it was falsely reported that the story was about a Bosnian woman falling in love with her Serbian rapist, prompting protests from the Bosnian Women Victims of War association and the revocation of the filming permit."Angelina Jolie Cuts Bosnia Shooting After Rapist Love Story Rumors." HuffingtonPost.com. October 17, 2011. Jolie denied the rumors and presented the script to Bosnia and Herzegovina's Ministry of Culture, which then quickly reinstated the permit."Angelina Jolie Given Back Bosnia Film Permit". CBS News. October 18, 2011.
Plagiarism suit In September 2011, the Bosnian Croat author Josip Knežević, a.k.a. James J. Braddock, accused Jolie of plagiarizing his story Slamanje duše (The Soul Shattering), which was published in December 2007. He claimed to have made repeated attempts to contact the film's producers during the production phase, but they ignored him. He then announced his intention to sue Jolie.'Jolie mi je uzela priču, od tragedije pravi Truman Show';sarajevo-x.com, September 19, 2011 On 2 December 2011, he filed a lawsuit against Jolie, GK Films, FilmDistrict, Scout Film (a production company based in Bosnia), and producer Edin Šarkić before the U.S. District Court in Chicago that has jurisdiction over Northern Illinois.Angelina Jolie sued, accused of plagiarizing movie;Chicago Sun-Times, December 6, 2011
Asked to comment during an interview with Los Angeles Times, Jolie dismissed Knežević's claims: "It's par for the course. It happens on almost every film. There are many books and documentaries that I did pull from, such as work by journalists Peter Maas and Tom Gjelten. It's a combination of many people's stories. But that particular book I've never seen."Angelina Jolie dismisses lawsuit against In the Land of Blood and Honey; The Guardian, December 7, 2011