Angelina Jolie Makes Directorial Debut in ‘In the Land of Blood & Honey’ [Trailer]
See anything good at the movies this weekend? Eh — guess you’ll just have to settle for a trailer instead.
We’re getting our first look at In the Land of Blood & Honey, the directorial debut of Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie. Set in 1990s Bosnia, the film outlines the love story between a Serbian man and a Bosnian-Muslim woman who are forced apart by the 1992 Bosnian conflicts.
The film sparked controversy in Bosnia last year when Jolie was shooting it. The head of a group of female war victims questioned its plausibility, claiming that it was unlikely for a staunch Muslim woman to fall in love with her enemy, and a government minister cancelled a permit for the film’s shoot.
Jolie asked people to withhold judgement until the movie was completed. She also noted that she opted to cast unknown Bosnian actors in order to tell the story authentically.
“There are many twists in the plot that address the sensitive nature of the relationship between the main characters and that will be revealed once the film is released,” she said at the time.
In the Land of Blood & Honey opens in theaters Dec. 23, just in time to qualify for an Oscar nomination. Jolie shot scenes simultaneously in the English and Serbo-Croat languages, so there will be two versions released of the film.
