Just a few days ago I wrote about Angelina Jolie walking the red carpet for the Berlin Film Festival’s gala Cinema For Peace where she was recognized with an award for her film In The Land Of Blood And Honey. The film, which is set in Bosnia during the war, premiered this week in the Bosnian city of Sarajevo. News today has surfaced that Angelina and the cast have been receiving intimidating threats since it’s Bosnian debut. This is scary!

Angelina spoke to Britain’s The Guardian about what has been going on since the film came out in Bosnia. She is concerned that her film’s debut will cause unwanted controversy in the Balkans.

“There were things sent to me, there were things posted online. The cast… have never complained to me about these threats but I’ve heard through other people it was happening… one of them did have their windows smashed in on their cars and someone else had an issue when their phone was hacked and emails were sent out saying they were from them and saying they had been hurt. It was a scary thought that someone was thinking along those lines…

The physical threats are not what most bothered me because I have been to so many different countries where there are different kinds of threats, being in Afghanistan and other places as an outspoken American woman.
It was more that… with a film like this, you don’t want it to be used as a tool… especially in an election year, where people are deciding to label it without having seen it, and try to incite aggression and violence.”

There is no denying that Ange’s film is controversial and intense. It follows the story of a romance between a Serbian soldier and a Bosnian woman during the 1990s war in the region, and the war in the Balkans is still so recent and the wounds so deep. The fact that this was a difficult story to tell was the reason Angelina wanted to do it, so I am sure she expected some kind of backlash to the film. This reaction in Bosnia however is terrifying. Smashing in car windows… phone hacking…?! It is scary to think that there are still countries today where human rights are still at risk and that you can show a film that is controversial and it can result in physical attacks and threats. It is also frightening that still today a piece of art can be used as a politically violent tool. I’m sure Ange and the rest of the film’s crew are highly concerned now about what is going to happen in Bosnia as a result of the film. Could it really cause more unrest?

If you haven’t seen the film yet here is the trailer so you know what it’s about. The film is powerful and even though it is hard to see and I’m sure is extremely confronting for people who lived through and experienced the Bosnian war, it tells a necessary story.

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