Angelina Jolie didn't pick an easy subject matter for her directorial debut. The Oscar-winning actress wrote and directed 'In the Land of Blood and Honey,' a drama about a forbidden romance set against the backdrop of the Bosnian war in the mid-90s. Jolie doesn't appear in the film, which will screen in the native Bosnian language and feature subtitles, but early reviews have been strong and 'Honey' is poised to be one of the more intriguing indie releases of the holiday season. Ahead, check out the first clip from 'In the Land of Blood and Honey.'
Can't wait to watch! RT @andersoncooper: My interview with Angelina Jolie airs Monday on @anderson. See a preview: andr.tv/ti2Rpp ^LM
‘Blood,’ sweat, tears
Jolie, defending film before debut, chokes up over cast’s supportDon’t mess with Angelina Jolie or her directorial debut, “In the Land of Blood and Honey.”
The first-time director is defending her Bosnian war epic from near-constant controversy as the movie — which nabbed a Golden Globe nod for Best Foreign Film — debuts in theaters this week.
Croatian journalist James Braddock is suing Jolie, claiming she stole the premise of the film from his book. Meanwhile, Bosnian war rape victims groups continue protesting the United Nations over the film’s romance between a Serbian solider and his prisoner at a rape camp, a plotline that forced Jolie to cut shooting short in Bosnia.
“Nobody who had issue with the film read the script or knew what it was about, so it was a fear of the unknown,” Jolie said at a lunch attended by Flash at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. “Our permit was never revoked. We showed the script and we received our permit ... it actually bonded the cast even closer.”
Jolie further denied that she romanticizes the complex relationship between her central characters, played by Goran Kostic and Zana Marjanovic, who are enemies during the horrors of the Bosnian war.
“We sometimes refer to this not as a love story, but as a love story that could have been if not for war,” Jolie said.
Cast member Nikola Djuricko vigilantly defended Jolie from Braddock’s claims, saying: “I don’t know that this guy has even seen the movie.”
“Many people try to sometimes make accusations about her because she’s such a big star,” he told Flash. “That’s not the proper way to do things.”
Kostic, too, sang Jolie’s praises, pointing out that “she could have cast Brad Pitt, instead she cast me.”
“She doesn’t play games. She wanted the film to be the genuine article. When you get to know her you realize there’s no halfway with her,” he gushed to Flash. “After meeting Angelina, you come out as a better person. You want to go out and change the world straightaway.”
Looking almost gauntly thin, Jolie was nearly moved to tears at the lunch with her native Bosnian stars, as cast member Fedja Stukan recalled painful memories of his time as a real-life Bosnian solider, during which, he says he “saw my friends die in my hands.”
“I’ve been on a few American sets where people come out and they’re not quite prepared or they’re still on the phone — everybody here was 100 percent ready,” she said of her unknown cast.
Jolie said she’s not aiming for vast commercial success with the low-budget “In the Land of Blood and Honey,” which will be released in limited theaters, in Bosnia’s native Serbo-Croatian language and with English subtitles.
“Many times when you want to do a film about this subject matter, many people tell you, ‘Well you’re gonna have to do a lot of of things in order to get people to see this,’ one of which is English and the other being you’re going to have to cast people that people recognize,” she said. “We decided to do neither.”
