Angelina Jolie makes her directorial debut in this movie about the conflict in Bosnia that occured in 1992- 1995 in the former republic of Yugoslavia.
She also wrote the script for the movie.
This coflict is portrayed through the captor-captive relationship between a Serb Officer and a Muslim woman, painter.
If we were to disregard history and to just look at this movie in it's entity, Angelina would have us believe that the Serbs were monsters and that the war was very one-sided. The Serbs are portaryed as blood-thirtsy rapists that showed utter contempt and disregard for human life.
In the movie, The Serbs over-run the outskirts of Sarajevo, capture the Muslim civilians. Seperate the men from the women, shoot the men and keep the women as sex slaves. The main character of the movie is such a woman, who just happens to be lucky for knowing the Serb in command, prior to the war. He seperates her from the others and tries to protect her from the pilaging Serbs. Their relationship is a complex one. He does not rape this woman but the viewer is left in doubt as to why the woman remains with him, when even he tries to persuade her to escape to freedom. Is it just for preservation or does she have genuine feeling for him? He really doesn't like the war nor the killing and rape nor the position that fate his bestowed upon him. What compicates things is that the officer's father is the head huncho, the General of the Serb army who leaves no doubt that he hates Muslims and that they should all be eradicated. Although the Serb Officer clearly has feelings for this woman, his father condemns this relationship and puts the seeds of doubt into his son's brain as to him being able to trust the enemy. The father also arranges that a comrade of his son's rapes the woman. The son winds up killing the guy for that act. Until the last minutes of this movie the viewer is left wondering what the ultimate end of this realtionship is going to be.
In the end, Angelina leaves no doubt as to her interpretation of this war. And in this respect the movie is harrowing and gripping.
The real facts are that when the Republic of Bosnia and Hercegovina ceseded from Yugoslavia, the people that lived on that territory where one third Serbs, one third Croats and one third Muslims. It was the Muslims that wanted to create a new and seperate republic and war broke out among the different factions that lived there. Since Serbia was the biggest republic in the country of Yugoslavia, most of the soldiers in the Yugoslav army were Serb and they tried to prevent the cesssession of the republic of Bosnia but the war evolved into a religious war between the Bosnian Greek Orthodox Serbs and the Muslims and the Catholic Croats.
Although Serbia became the big scapegoat of this war, the atrocities against ethnic civilian populations were comitted by all sides, mostly by army irregular formations that were organized on that territory.
The US wound up bombing the capitol of Serbia and engaged Nato also to bomb the Serbs that were occuping the hills over Sarajevo.
Later it was found out that there were about 5, 000 Muhadjadin and Alkaida members that came from outside to aid the Muslim faction and that some of the atrocities that were attribiuted to the Serbs were actually staged by the Muslims to gain world support and intervention.
Madeleine Albreight didn't have a clue nor did Clinton as to what was going on over there.
Anyway, Angelina with this movie just reinforced the belief that the war was a one-sided genocide against the Muslims, even though at the War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague, after the fact,the Serbs were not the only ones tried as war criminals. Atrocities in Bosnia as well as Croatia, who also ceseded from the Yugoslav Federation, were comitted by all sides and the Serbs were certainly not the only villians.
She also wrote the script for the movie.
This coflict is portrayed through the captor-captive relationship between a Serb Officer and a Muslim woman, painter.
If we were to disregard history and to just look at this movie in it's entity, Angelina would have us believe that the Serbs were monsters and that the war was very one-sided. The Serbs are portaryed as blood-thirtsy rapists that showed utter contempt and disregard for human life.
In the movie, The Serbs over-run the outskirts of Sarajevo, capture the Muslim civilians. Seperate the men from the women, shoot the men and keep the women as sex slaves. The main character of the movie is such a woman, who just happens to be lucky for knowing the Serb in command, prior to the war. He seperates her from the others and tries to protect her from the pilaging Serbs. Their relationship is a complex one. He does not rape this woman but the viewer is left in doubt as to why the woman remains with him, when even he tries to persuade her to escape to freedom. Is it just for preservation or does she have genuine feeling for him? He really doesn't like the war nor the killing and rape nor the position that fate his bestowed upon him. What compicates things is that the officer's father is the head huncho, the General of the Serb army who leaves no doubt that he hates Muslims and that they should all be eradicated. Although the Serb Officer clearly has feelings for this woman, his father condemns this relationship and puts the seeds of doubt into his son's brain as to him being able to trust the enemy. The father also arranges that a comrade of his son's rapes the woman. The son winds up killing the guy for that act. Until the last minutes of this movie the viewer is left wondering what the ultimate end of this realtionship is going to be.
In the end, Angelina leaves no doubt as to her interpretation of this war. And in this respect the movie is harrowing and gripping.
The real facts are that when the Republic of Bosnia and Hercegovina ceseded from Yugoslavia, the people that lived on that territory where one third Serbs, one third Croats and one third Muslims. It was the Muslims that wanted to create a new and seperate republic and war broke out among the different factions that lived there. Since Serbia was the biggest republic in the country of Yugoslavia, most of the soldiers in the Yugoslav army were Serb and they tried to prevent the cesssession of the republic of Bosnia but the war evolved into a religious war between the Bosnian Greek Orthodox Serbs and the Muslims and the Catholic Croats.
Although Serbia became the big scapegoat of this war, the atrocities against ethnic civilian populations were comitted by all sides, mostly by army irregular formations that were organized on that territory.
The US wound up bombing the capitol of Serbia and engaged Nato also to bomb the Serbs that were occuping the hills over Sarajevo.
Later it was found out that there were about 5, 000 Muhadjadin and Alkaida members that came from outside to aid the Muslim faction and that some of the atrocities that were attribiuted to the Serbs were actually staged by the Muslims to gain world support and intervention.
Madeleine Albreight didn't have a clue nor did Clinton as to what was going on over there.
Anyway, Angelina with this movie just reinforced the belief that the war was a one-sided genocide against the Muslims, even though at the War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague, after the fact,the Serbs were not the only ones tried as war criminals. Atrocities in Bosnia as well as Croatia, who also ceseded from the Yugoslav Federation, were comitted by all sides and the Serbs were certainly not the only villians.