Bosnian War film a wake-up call: Jolie

16 Feb 2012, 10:39 am   -   Source: AFP
Share This
0 
+ Comment
2

Hollywood star Angelina Jolie says her film about the Bosnian war should be a wake-up call for the world to act in time to prevent atrocities like those now happening in Syria.

RELATED

Hollywood star Angelina Jolie said Tuesday that her film about the Bosnian war should be a "wake-up call" for the world to act in time to prevent atrocities like those now happening in Syria.

Jolie and her partner Brad Pitt arrived in Sarajevo to attend the premiere of her directorial debut film In the Land of Blood and Honey which was screened in a sports hall before an audience of some 5,000 people.

Greeted with standing ovations, Jolie broke in tears when she got on the stage after the screening.

"To see you receiving it so well means a world to me. I feel so deep for all of you in this country," said Jolie, dressed in a long black dress, with a brief "Thank you" in Bosnian.

Earlier, Jolie said she was "satisfied" with the film, a story of a Muslim woman and a Serb man who have a fling before Bosnia's 1992-1995 war only to meet again when the woman is a prisoner in a unit of the Bosnian Serb army commanded by her former lover.

"I feel very strongly about it (the film) and I believe that its core issue -- which is the need for intervention and need for the world to pay attention to atrocities when they are happening -- is very, very timely and especially with things that are happening in Syria today," Jolie told journalists.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay warned that "the nature and scale of abuses committed by Syrian forces indicate that crimes against humanity are likely to have been committed since March 2011."

'WAKE-UP CALL'
  
Jolie said that it "is very important that this film is out at this time."
  
"If this film points the finger at anybody it is the international community, so I hope it remains a wake-up call for them," she said.
  
Muradif Hatonic, 77, said he was "deeply moved."
  
"It brought me back to war years. I was in hell again. As if I was telling them my war experiences," Hatonic told news agency AFP.
  
Many women with tears in their eyes said they were "shocked."
  
"I lived through the war but I was spared the horrors other women suffered. Thank you Angelina for speaking about Bosnia like this," said 30 year-old Suzana Omeragic.
  
The film has already had a special preview screening in Bosnia for war victims' organisations as a number of them had expressed concern that it would not correctly present their plight.
  
Most eventually hailed the movie as objective and sincere.
  
But in a Serb part of Bosnia many reacted angrily, accusing Jolie of being biased against their ethnic community which they say she has portrayed as villains.
  
In a protest against a distributor's refusal to show the film in cinemas, a Serb woman from the western town Prijedor organised a private screening last weekend with Jolie's approval.
  
"We will do that for anyone who wants to have a private screening. And we hope that we encourage the people to see it somehow," Jolie said.
  
Jolie denied her film was anti-Serbian.
  
"I understand that it is sensitive, but I also know that the Serbian people are intelligent and open-minded people," she said.

BOSNIAN WAR
  
Bosnia's war between its Croats, Muslims and Serbs claimed some 100,000 lives.
  
Some 20,000 women were raped during the conflict, according to the local associations' estimates.
  
Jolie's film, shot in 2010 with a number of actors from the former Yugoslavia, had its international premiere in December in New York.
  
It goes on general release in Europe this month and will also be screened at the 62nd Berlin film festival.
  
On Friday, it will premiere in neighbouring Croatia, while in Serbia, it will open later this month, despite overwhelming disappointment with the film.
  
"Politically, it is biased... Artisticly speaking, it is shallow and did not go further than a spaghetti western," said Mirko Beokovic of the Serbian Academy for Cinema and Art.
  

 

Angelina Jolie , SBS Film

  • Follow us: 
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Youtube

Your Comments

Serbs are in denial

nancy - from glenroy, 1 year

I remember crying when reading about the atrocities committed during the Bosnian war. Then and now I couldn't understand how one could rape, torture and murder the people they lived next door to. I have serb friends who still deny that rapes and murders, and even srebrenica massacre ever occurred. They still believe it is made up by the international community to make them look like the villains. If they, like the Germans accepted the truth, maybe one day there may be peace in former Yugoslavia.

What's wrong with it being Anti Serb Portrayal

Kev - from Noraville, 1 year

I'm all for not generalizing people on their races, Germans today are not the Nazis of WW2, Japanese are not the sane either. But to portray people different to reality especially in a movie supposably based on historical fact is white washing. Serbs acted atrociously during the war so of course they will be portrayed as villains, that would be like saying it's wrong to have WW2 movies anti Nazi or Anti Japan. Since so many people can't be bothered to read a history book I feel movies like this need to be portrayed as accurately as possible because if we remember our history through rose colored glasses we will never learn a damn thing from it.

Join the Discussion

Name
City / Suburb E.g. Artarmon, Sydney
Title
Comment
You have characters remaining.
Validation
What's this?
This is a captcha-picture. It is used to prevent mass-access by robots.
All submitted comments become the property of SBS. They are moderated, so we reserve the right to edit comments and remove HTML tags. Not all submitted comments will be published. Publication does not mean we endorse the opinions expressed. Please read our terms and conditions for more information.