In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011)

During the Bosnian War, Danijel, a soldier fighting for the Serbs, re-encounters Ajla, a Bosnian who's now a captive in his camp he oversees. Their once promising connection has become ambiguous as their motives have changed.

Director:

Angelina Jolie

Writer:

Angelina Jolie

Stars:

Zana Marjanovic, Goran Kostic, Rade Serbedzija

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 4 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Zana Marjanovic	...	Ajla
Goran Kostic	...	Danijel
Rade Serbedzija	...	Nebojsa
Vanessa Glodjo	...	Lejla
Nikola Djuricko	...	Darko
Branko Djuric	...	Aleksandar
Fedja Stukan	...	Petar
Alma Terzic	...	Hana
Jelena Jovanova	...	Esma
Ermin Bravo	...	Mehmet
Boris Ler	...	Tarik
Goran Jevtic	...	Mitar
Ermin Sijamija	...	Vuc
Milos Timotijevic	...	Durja
Jasna Beri	...	Mejrema (as Jasna Ornela Bery)

Storyline

During the Bosnian War, the captive Bosnian Ajla is brought with other women to a Serbian barrack to serve the soldiers. The commander Danijel recognizes Ajla that he met in a night-club and wooed her and he discreetly protects her. They rekindle their love, but can they trust on each other?

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Plot Keywords:

bosnian war | soldier | violence | wine | rape | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance | War

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for war violence and atrocities including rape, sexuality, nudity and language

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

Bosnian Serbian

Release Date:

16 February 2012 (Netherlands)

Also Known As:

U zemlji krvi i meda

Filming Locations:

Vares, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Box Office

Budget:

$10,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$9,479 (USA) (30 December 2011)

Gross:

$301,305 (USA) (2 March 2012)

Company Credits

Production Co:

GK Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

127 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Marija Karan, Branko Tomovic and Branka Katic were also considered for the lead roles.

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Goofs

Almost all uniforms, insignia, military equipment, weapons and vehicles of the Bosnian Serb Army shown in the movie, are completely inaccurate and never seen in the war in the former Yugoslavia. Whilst some wardrobe pieces (e.g. ranks and insignia) are fully imaginary items, most other military props are obviously of non-local origin (mostly came from former Soviet Block armies, notably Hungary, where most of the filming took place). Practically all of the shown 'Bosnian Serb' distinctive sleeve insignia, are actually from the surplus of The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Army and were, as such, never worn by Serbs in the Bosnian War.

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Quotes

Ajla: Oh my God, where are they taking the men?

User Reviews

About taking sides in reviewing this movie

As a neutral viewer, let me first say about the movie's setting and theme, rallying to support or vote against the movie and all these 1/10 and 10/10 reviews.

So here are the facts:

• the movie's goal is "honor the women victims of war" and portray war

horrors - it is said that it is not supposed to take sides - the plot takes place in Serb prison camp and all war criminals portrayed are exclusively Serbs

These three lines are enough to explain all the fuss about this movie in the media. It was a war - and anyone who is at least a bit more deep than to eat whatever media serves, knows what any war is really like. It is often said that it was a "brother-killing" war, and there is an especially influential political background story to this one:

http://www.balkanstudies.org/articles/understanding-balkan-wars

All 4 sides (UN is the 4th, doing mostly nothing) have to share their responsibility, like all sides have to in any war. I applaud the director's idea about telling the story of women victims of the war. But to do so completely one-sidedly, while saying it is supposed to "honor the victims of war" is very irresponsible and bound to receive the negative attention it has. Imagine if any Hollywood producer would create a movie about atrocities done to German soldiers by the Allies in WWII - not on the same scale, but same problem.

For some truly great films about this war (all sides can agree to that), see "No Man's Land" and "Pretty Village, Pretty Flame".

In my opinion, the message of the movie is severely damaged by shifting the focus of a lot of viewers to lack of neutrality and presence of heavy bias. If it has covered a couple of stories featuring women victims, and not a flimsy and unfocused love story covered with violence with no clear purpose, it could have been a very good movie. Like this, it is weakly executed, fails to deliver focus and strong clear message and is very irresponsible.