In the Land of Blood and Honey

In The Land Of Blood And Honey

Bravo Angelie Jolie. You are more than a pretty face and Bad Pitt’s lover. Jolie, wrote, directed and produced this difficult film about the war in Bosnia between the Serbs and the Muslims. The time is 1992.

Certainly there are things one could criticize. The main character is taken prisoner by the Serbs. She lives in terrible conditions but her eye make up and sculptured eyebrows remain constant. Her Serbian lover keeps her in a room in the army headquarters. All the men know about the relationship. The Serbian fighters would never have allowed their captain to have an enemy lover living in the building. They would probably turn on him. The Muslim girl is a lover of a Serbian captain. Many claim that would have been impossible. Even with these questions of accuracy the film is excellent.

This is a powerful film. I saw both sides of the struggle that tore a country apart. The Serbs were ruthless and vengeful. They claim the Muslims slaughtered hundreds of Serbs and they were acting in return. The Serbs were determined to get rid of all Muslims. They raped women. They slaughtered any Muslim they could find and forced hundreds of people from their homes to live in horrible refugee camps. The country was savaged and bombed completely. It was a no win situation.

The film is cleverly told through a love story. Ajla falls in love with Danijel. The problem is that she is Muslim and he is a captain in the Serbian army. It was so magnificent to see the two dancing together sensuously .on their first date. Moments later the calm is destroyed by a bomb and they barely escape alive.

The Muslims are rounded up. Ajla is separated from her loving sister and taken to a refugee camp. The women witness one of their own brutally raped in front of them. It is a coincidence that Danijel is a captain in the Serbian army and in control of the refugee camp. He doesn’t go along with the brutality and really wishes he wasn’t in the army. His father is one of the top military leaders and he has to protect the family image and go along with the Serbs.

He helps Ajla to escape. He protects her and later gives her a room in the headquarters and protects her. She is a painter and she spends her time painting and making love to her captain. She asks him,” Are we so terrible?”

We question if she is saving her life or truly in love with this man. We witness all the horrors of war and see how a war can tear apart people just because they are different.

At one point Ajla states,” I was brought up to believe that Serbs, Muslims and Croats are all the same.”

We witness UN cars being bombed and learn that the west has refused to enter this battle. The Serbian military commander refuses to negotiate.

I thought it was a brilliant concept to allow us to see the war through the eyes of a Muslim and a Serb. Even though Danijel was a captain he also had a soft side. He seemed to care for Ajla and be sensitive to her needs. He tried to help her. He murdered the soldier who raped her. He tried to help her escape. At other times he is the brutal soldier killing Muslims.

War is filled with inconsistencies. We see this in the picture. Jolie has personalized the bitterness and horror through the eyes of Ajla and Danijel.

At the end of the film we are given some interesting facts abo