In the Land of Blood and Honey

Angelina Jolie wrote and directed this controversial cross-cultural love story set amidst the ethnic cleansing and genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the early 1990s. Danijel (Goran Kostic) is a Bosnian Serb policeman, serving under his brutish father, General Nebojsa Vukojevich (Rade Serbedzija), while Ajla (Zana Marjanovic) is a Muslim artist. Their relationship is just beginning to blossom when an explosion rocks the café where they're dancing and violence erupts, separating the pair on opposite sides of the conflict. While Danijel is deeply conflicted, Ajla is evicted from the apartment she shares with her sister and her child—amid a surrounding barrage of rapes and cold-blooded killings—and incarcerated in a camp, where Danijel makes her his prisoner/mistress. Jolie falls short in providing any depth in understanding the reasons for the war, relying on Gen. Vukojevich's self-justifying explanation that Serbs stood up to Hitler and prevented Turks from conquering Europe centuries ago, and now must prevent Muslims from taking over. Instead, she chronicles in graphic detail the horrors committed by Serbs against Muslims within the fictional context of a Romeo and Juliet–inspired romance. Still, this is an impressive project overall from an actress who is also a committed humanitarian activist. Recommended. [Note: Blu-ray extras include a Q&A with director Angelina Jolie and costar Vanessa Glodjo (62 min.), deleted scenes (17 min.), a “making-of” featurette (11 min.), trailers, a bonus DVD copy of the film, and the BD-Live function. Bottom line: a fine extras package for this ambitious effort from superstar Jolie.] (S. Granger)