GK Films,

Zana Marjanovic, Goran Kostic, Rade Serbedzija, Branko Djuric, Nikola Djuricko, Dolya Gavanski

In this story about the Bosnian War, Danijel (Goran Kostic) has a relationship with Ajla (Zana Marjanovic), a Bosnian who’s now a prisoner in a camp he oversees. Their relationship started at a dance club, but a bomb attack suddenly changed everything. Danijel uses his position in the camp to protect Ajla by giving her a special task of drawing portraits of the camp leaders. But as Ajla gains strength, and Danijel’s position is compromised, things get very complicated and it’s very difficult to carry on a relationship when they are on different sides in this horrible war.

This story was directed by Angelina Jolie in her first attempt at directing. She took on a very powerful story for her attempt, and she was, I’m pretty sure, trying to put a human face on the terrible atrocities that took place over there in the 90’s. Well, in many ways she succeeds, but in some ways the film falls short. In many ways the story is hard to believe, and it’s difficult to follow sometimes. It’s hard to accept that it’s really an accurate depiction of the situation, but some reviewers who lived through it swear that it was just like it was shown. It just seems a bit too set up to be historical fiction, and it’s more like taking a historical event and putting a fictitious story behind it to make your point.

The realistic thing about this is that the actors are really from this area. The down side of that is that it made them hard for me to understand. I tried to put the subtitles on and follow it closely, but if you miss reading a line or two, it’s hard to follow along with what’s going on.

All that being said, I didn’t hate the movie in the least. But I did not come out of it all fired up and ready to march against the war either. It just left me a bit too ambivalent. If you’re interested in the historical facts, and want to know more about the holocaust that happened here, then by all means rent the film. But if you’re looking for a strong romantic drama, this will probably leave you wishing for a better story. I came down in the middle, not sorry that I watched it, but not very excited about it either.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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    In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011) {R}Trailer for movie review at http://www.edsreview.com | Stahuj cz filmy a MP3 zdarma said

    February 21 2013 @ 5:51 pm

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