A brilliant debut written and directed by Jolie. She has an artist’s eye, strong personal vision, and a masterful command of her stars.
No one has paid attention to the feel-good term “never again”. The term “never again” was coined after the Holocaust as a challenge to the world to put an end to genocides and hate crimes. Unfortunately, it was not “never again”. Genocides continued to happen and are still happening today.*
Croats and Bosniaks were expelled by Serbs, Serbs and Bosniaks by Croats, and Bosniaks expelled rival populations from their domains. This period of ethnic cleansing culminated in 1995, when the long-established population of Krajina was completely expunged. Serbs who remained, mostly elderly and helpless, were murdered by Croatian paramilitaries.
IN THE LAND OF BLOOD AND HONEY highlights the savagery of the Serbs. Danijel has been given the position of running a military camp by his father, Serbian General Nebojsa (Rade
Of course I have heard about “ethnic cleansing” but this film boldly and bluntly puts it all out there. The rape and humiliation of the women and Nazi-like behavior of the soldiers is harrowing – important because it happened in the 1990s. The Serbian soldiers killed civilians as ruthlessly as the Nazis. They took people from their homes with the same violence shown the Jews during Hitler’s reign.
While not beautiful by Hollywood standards, Jolie and her cinematographer, Dean Semler, imbue Marjanovic and Kostic with dazzling closeups. Through Jolie’s eyes, Kostic becomes a compelling sex symbol. As is necessary for all great directors, Jolie has fallen in love with her actors.
Member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association: www.bfca.org/ and the Las Vegas Film Critics Society: www.lvfcs.org/
Victoria’s weekly column, “The Devil’s Hammer,” is posted every Monday. http://www.fromthebalcony.com. If you would like to be included on Victoria’s private distribution list for a weekly preview, just email her at masauu@aol.com.
Victoria Alexander lives in Las Vegas, Nevada and answers every email. You can contact Victoria directly at masauu@aol.com.
*I visited Rwanda in 2007. The Rwandan Genocide hangs heavy over the country. You can feel it. And they do not like white people (probably due to memories of forced colonialism). The Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass murder of an estimated 800,000-1,000,000 people. Over the course of approximately 100 days, as much as 20% of the country’s total population was killed, not by the military or secret police, but by the common people. You could murder, by machete, anyone you wanted for 100 days! The people gathered and raided villages, killing friends, neighbors and even spouses. Children often participated. It was the culmination of longstanding ethnic competition and tensions between the minority Tutsi, who had controlled power for centuries, and the majority Hutu peoples, who had come to power in the rebellion of 1959–62 and overthrown the Tutsi monarchy.