ANGELINA JOLIE'S UNTITLED BOSNIAN LOVE STORY

Sexually Charged Romance Between Serbs and Bosniaks? Give us a break!

Angelina Jolie's directorial debut, "Untitled Bosnian Love Story", continues to create controversy. The upcoming movie is "Based on original screenplay written by Jolie, [and] the actors ... solely comprised of various ethnicities from the region of the former Yugoslavia," according to GK Films.

Unfortunately, majority of actors hired by Jolie are Serbs and Croats (Zana Marjanovic, Rade Serbedzija, Branko Djuric, Goran Kostic, Jelena Jovanova, Goran Jevtic, etc.). As far as we can tell, Alma Terzic is the only Bosniak-Muslim actor hired by Jolie.

Jolie describes her movie as "A love story set during the Bosnian war, the film focuses on a Serbian man and a Bosnian woman who meet on the eve of the war and the effect the war has on their relationship." But, there is more to that sexually charged relationship. It's a relationship between a Serb concentration camp guard and a Bosniak detainee, who had formerly been his girlfriend, according to the script. 

Imagine how Jewish victims of genocide would have felt if Jolie made a movie about sexually charged romance between a Nazi camp guard and a Jewish detainee? Do we need morally corrupt western world's interpretation of love, romance and tolerance to be advertised to Bosniak kids in Bosnia? Is this Jolie's promotion of mixed marriages; a racist hidden agenda to whitewash Bosniak victims into believing that brotherhood, love and unity between Serbs and Bosniaks is still possible after Serbs committed genocide against our people in Second World War and the Bosnian war? Is this real agenda of Jolie's movie? Should we simply forget and forgive, like nothing happened?

In an open letter to Angelina Jolie, dated 25 October, the Association of 'Women - Victims of War' wrote:

“We understand ['Untitled Love Story'] will be based upon a 'loving surrender' of Bosnian women to their rapists and representatives of a country which planned, directed and commanded the execution of all of the crimes committed, including the crimes of sexual abuse which was to serve as a means of denationalizing and dehumanizing the victims. ... It would be as if you were trying to make a movie using the same screenplay and instead of a Serbian male have a Taliban one, and instead of a Bosnian woman an American one.”

On or about 20th November, Angelina Jolie responded:

Dear Ms Hasecic and Mr Tahirovic,

I am writing to thank you for your letter of 25 October which I have recently received.

Please allow me this opportunity to state once again that I am deeply sensitive to the suffering experienced by members of your associations and I would never trivialize what they went through. There has been a great deal of misinformation in the media about my current film project. I wish to assure you that it has always been my intention to tell the story, which is set in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with dignity and the utmost respect for the people of your country.

In this regard, I wish to confirm my desire to meet with you during my next visit to Sarajevo in November so that I can learn from you personally and have a greater understanding of the suffering and abuses experienced by the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina. I also hope that the meeting will allow us to clarify any misunderstandings concerning the film that you may have as a result of the misinformation carried by the media.

I look forward to meeting with you and I shall be in contact in the near future to arrange the necessary details.

Jolie said at the time she wanted to meet the associations that had complained about her film to clear up any misunderstandings, but the meeting never took place. According to AFP report dated 29th November, Bosnian victims of sexual violence during the 1990s war responded to Angelina Jolie's broken promise with the following statement:

"“We have insisted to meet Angelina Jolie since we don’t want to be wrongly presented in the world … Our voices are worthwhile and we should have got much more respect,' the WVW [Women - Victims of War] letter said.

'Angelina made a big mistake. We feel that she did not act like a real UNHCR ambassador and we believe that she has no more credibility to remain the ambassador,' it concluded.

WVW head Bakira Hasecic said Jolie invited the victims to meet her in the Hungarian capital but they refused the invitation.

'Crimes were committed here, in Bosnia, and we want to meet her here,' Bakira Hasecic told AFP.

'We wanted to talk woman to woman. She should have asked after the victims, come (to Bosnia) before the shooting to hear our voice.'

'As far as we are concerned a love story could not have existed in a camp. Such an interpretation is causing us mental suffering,' she stressed."