Angelina Jolie Writes, Directs and Produces a Masterpiece

Angelina Jolie has written, directed and produced a masterpiece in In The Land of Blood and Honey (2011),  aimed at revealing the genocide (and rape genocide) perpetrated in Bosnia during the Bosnian War (1992-1995), starring Zana (rhymes with Donna) Marjanović (Ajla), Goran Kostić (Danijel), and Rade Šerbedžija (Nebojša).  Danijel is a soldier fighting for the Bosnian Serbs. In a prisoner camp led by his strict father, the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) general Nebojša, he finds Ajla, his former love, who is a Bosniak and therefore a prisoner. The Bosnian Serb policy against Bosniaks, and the secrecy of their relationship before the war, endangers the lives of the former lovers.  Jolie got the idea to write a script of a wartime love story after traveling to Bosnia and Herzegovina as a U.N. goodwill ambassador.  Generally the actors were local, still harboring fresh wounds from the conflict, so one can imagine how difficult the brutal scenes were to execute.



Naturally controversial, Serbian directors have claimed the film is not evenhanded in examining atrocities by the Bosniaks.  The Bosnian Serbs are painted as aggressors, in the name of a mythological Greater Serbia, masterminded by Slobodan Milošević.

Golshifteh Farahani Tests Limits in The Patience Stone

Golshifteh Farahani is Iran's best known actress, but her rebellious ways have landed her as an exile in Paris.  Afghan-born Atiq Rahimi directed the film based on his novel of the same title, written in French.  The actress was required to learn her lines in Dari, the Farsi dialect spoken in Afghanistan.

In a country torn apart by war, following the retreat of Soviet occupation forces, Afghan rival bands of mujaheddin are fighting over remnants of the city...A young woman in her thirties (the film never reveals any character names) watches over her older husband, a fratricidal bullet in the neck has reduced him to a comatose state. One day, the woman's vigil changes. She begins to speak truth to her silent husband, telling him about her childhood, her suffering, her frustrations, her loneliness, her dreams, desires, and secrets. After years of living under his control, with no voice of her own, she says things she could never have spoken before, even though they have been married for ten years.

Her husband has unconsciously become syngué sabour (THE PATIENCE STONE) - a magical black stone that, according to Persian mythology, absorbs the plight of those who confide in it. The woman's confessions are extraordinary and without restraint: about sex and love, her anger against a man who never understood her, who mistreated her, who never showed her any respect or kindness. Through the words she delivers so audaciously to her husband, the woman seeks to free herself from suffering. But after weeks of looking after him, she begins to act, discovering herself in the relationship she starts with a young soldier.  Her aunt, who runs a brothel (she murdered her husband), quips regarding the young soldier "Tell him to fuck with his tongue and talk with his dick."

Portions of the film were filmed in Kabul, without Farahani.  Permits were obtained in the name of doing a documentary on combat quail, the racing birds, a subplot in the movie.  The balance of the movie was filmed in Morocco.

Set in 1979, it draws upon Rahimi's memories of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. By that time, his parents had left Kabul, his father having served jail time as a political prisoner, but Rahimi remained in the city to complete high school. During the Russian occupation, life soon became unbearable, and the director, along with a group of friends that included his future wife, escaped to Pakistan. There, he was granted asylum by French authorities, and went to Paris to continue his education.