In the Land of Blood and Honey (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) (2011)

I was invited to see this film back in July. At the time it was a secret screening. They wouldn't tell us the name of the movie, let alone who directed it. When I find out later it was directed by Angelina Jolie , I was impressed.

She did a great job capturing the atrocities of war and the lowest depths of humanity here. The movie basically shows us the events leading to, during, and after the Bosnian war from the perspective of a Serb and a Bosnian who as it so happens are lovers.

The lovers are Ajla and Danijel both excellently played by Goran Kostic and Zana Marjanovic . At first Danijel is very hesitant about carrying his orders as a Serb soldier. At first, but this doesn't last long.

He either carries out or orders other members of his team to carry some barbaric actions on the Bosnian civilians they find from either rape, torture, to eventual death.

When you see what happens you are going instantly think back to the Nazi's and what they did to Jews in the name of ethnic cleansing.

Eventually, we see through Danijel's lead, genocide being committed at every turn. Ajla is captured, but she is treated like royalty (again at first) with no one else being able to touch or come near here except Danijel.

This love story though has no happy ending as Ajla sees Danijel for what he is, not an unwilling participant in the war, but an active and willing agitator in one of the most chronicled bloodbaths recorded in Europe.

"In the land of Blood and Honey" is a superb war movie showing the type of atrocities that the Serbs were accused off while the United Nations and United States did nothing to stop it until the end.

Angelina Jolie's second directorial debut is impressive. No shot is ever wasted, every shot and scene sets up something very important. The actors are all excellent.

This could easily get several Academy nominations come Oscar time.

All in war a very brutal, but realistic depiction of another bloody war in history.

An amazing writing/directorial debut by angelina jolie. The actor's were phenomenal(great choice in using local actors) and I applaud angelina on actually doing research and using facts in a situation which is so sensitive and which she got a lot of heat for. I applaud her for not backing down and the effects speak for themselves. A very real war movie, it doesn't baby you, if you're looking for a movie to baby you look elsewhere. It shows what these women have gone through and believe it or not I felt for both sides the muslims and the serbs maybe because I can step back and look at it objectively for what it was. The ending did shock me but I loved that it wasn't a hollywood ending, after all there are no hollywood endings in war and angelina jolie understands that. I look forward to her next directorial/writing effort, she's got the talent and we need more women in that field.

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THE LAND OF BLOOD AND HONEY is stirring a lot of controversy, both bad and good. This is actress Angelina Jolie's first outing as writer/director of a film and for many reasons she deserves applause for tackling such a subject as the Balkan War from 1992 1995. Unless the viewer has studied the conditions in the once Yugoslavia, a bit of history may help the view to understand the conflict. `In 1992, conflict engulfed Bosnia and Herzegovina. The war was predominantly a territorial conflict between local Bosniaks and Croats backed by Zagreb, and Serbs backed by the Yugoslav People's Army and Serbia. The Yugoslav armed forces had disintegrated into a largely Serb-dominated military force. Opposed to the Bosnian-majority led government's agenda for independence, and along with other armed nationalist Serb militant forces, the JNA attempted to prevent Bosnian citizens from voting in the 1992 referendum on independence. This did not succeed in persuading people not to vote and instead the intimidating atmosphere combined with a Serb boycott of the vote resulted in a resounding 99% vote in support for independence. On 19 June 1992, the war in Bosnia broke out. The conflict, typified by the siege of Sarajevo and Srebrenica, was by far the bloodiest and most widely covered of the Yugoslav wars. Bosnia's Serb faction led by ultra-nationalist Radovan Karadzi' promised independence for all Serb areas of Bosnia from the majority-Bosniak government of Bosnia. To link the disjointed parts of territories populated by Serbs and areas claimed by Serbs, Karadzic pursued an agenda of systematic ethnic cleansing primarily against Bosnians through genocide and forced removal of Bosniak populations. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the United States reported in April 1995 that 90 percent of all the atrocities in the Yugoslav wars up to that point had been committed by Serb militants. Most of these atrocities occurred in Bosnia. In 1994 the US brokered peace between Croatian forces and the Bosnian Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. After the successful Flash and Storm operations, the Croatian Army and the combined Bosnian and Croat forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, conducted an operation codenamed Operation Maestral to push back Bosnian Serb military gains.Together with NATO air strikes on the Bosnian Serbs, the successes on the ground put pressure on the Serbs to come to the negotiating table. The fighting in Croatia ended in mid-1995, after Operation Flash and Operation Storm. At the end of these operations, Croatia had managed to reclaim all of its territory except the UNPA Sector East bordering Serbia, however most of the Serbian population in these areas had become refugees, and these operations have led to war crimes indictments by the ICTY against elements of the Croat military leadership. The areas uncaptured by the Croations forces in "Sector East" came under UN administration (UNTAES), and were reintegrated to Croatia in 1998. The war ended with the signing of the Dayton Agreement on the 14 December 1995, with the formation of Republika Srpska as an entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina being the resolution for Bosnian Serb demands.

From this background Jolie has fashioned a story that relates a strange love story that is difficult to define. Danijel (Goran Kosti') and Ajla (Zana Marjanovi'), rare in a dance hallwhen the explosive war begins Danijel is a a Serbian policeman, becomes a captain, and Muslim artist Ajla becomes a captive. When Ajla ends up in Danijel's camp, he attempts to protect her without attracting undue attention, so she serves the men meals, but the threat of rape is ever present. Danijel's father Nebojsa (Rade Šerbedzija) is the general of the Serbs and discovers that his son is hiding a Muslim woman, discovers her, has her tortured, and condemns his son. Lack of trust between the `lovers' leads to a tumultuous end.

The script is slow, the movement slower, but the impact of the bestiality of war, once again based on religion, demonstrates how cruel people can become when it is Serbs against Muslims, even when the individuals are lovers. The point is made, perhaps too repeatedly, but Jolie has assembled a fine cast and manages to give us as raw a picture of war and the camps always associated with the captured ones as can be shown on the screen. It is a necessary subject to examine: t is not an easy film to watch. Why is it controversial? The answer lies in why is war controversial who 'wins' when all lose? Grady Harp, February 12

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I wasn't sure how this would turn out. I thought I would find it only ok, a decent film from a well meaning person. I was pleasantly surprised to discover a well made, engaging, and well crafted film. The storyline, two would be lovers a la Romeo and Juliet, only they start out on the same side so to speak, seemed hard to believe but the acting, directing, and pacing of the film makes it work. An 1hr and 40 min in I was beginning to think it should be wrapping up but that's a minor bit of criticism. If you didn't know who wrote or directed this film you would think it was from someone that has done this for years. There's a lot of strength in this film. From the lead actors to the supporting cast , they keep you engaged. Daniel and Aja want so desperately to leave the war behind and be a safe space for each other but they can't. There's never a moment of peace, real peace, and I so respect Jolie for not making this a HW film. I highly recommend it. It's one of the best film I've seen from 2011. It's a shame it didn't get as much awards love as it actually deserves.

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I've never been in a war zone and can only imagine the complexities of emotions that must go on, but I think that The Land of Blood and Honey captures it. I love that it didn't get sentimental, political or glamorous. The people looked like real people. The atrocities are probably representative of what really happens in war. I am sure that neighbors became enemies overnight and there were many people with conflicting feelings of loyalty vs. morality. Films like this and The Stoning of Soraya M need to be made and shown. I am glad Jolie had the courage to do it and do it well.

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