In the Land of Blood and Honey

From NDTV:

Once the red carpet follies were over, the war correspondent Christiane Amanpour introduced the film, calling it “remarkable and courageous” while warning that there was “no way to sugarcoat” the atrocities it portrays. The afterparty, at a nightclub high atop a hip New York hotel in the meatpacking district, complete with the usual supercilious doormen, rotating disco ball and thumping music, was co-sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations and the human rights group Women for Women International. That was the atmosphere on Monday night at the New York premiere of In the Land of Blood and Honey, a harrowing look at the fratricidal Bosnian war of the 1990s: an unusual convergence of foreign policy seriousness and Hollywood glamour. But that is the way that Angelina Jolie, who wrote, directed and co-produced the film, operates these days.

“I've had fun as an actress,” Ms Jolie said in an interview over the weekend at the Waldorf-Astoria. “It's a very fun job, and I've had great experiences. But my heart has been on these foreign policy issues, and my interests are there. So to be able to combine them and be part of international affairs that way, working toward solutions and being part of a good dialogue with good people, felt like a nice evolution to me.” In the Land of Blood and Honey, which opens on Dec 23 and is Ms Jolie's directorial debut, tells the stories of Ajla, a Bosnian Muslim woman, and Danijel, a Serbian police officer, who meet in Sarajevo just before the war starts. Through them it examines the broader conflict, which killed more than 100,000 people, displaced 2 million more and introduced the term “ethnic cleansing” to the lexicon of war.

More here. (Note: I attended the premier and highly recommend the movie which is brutal but brilliant)