Angelina Jolie's Bosnian War Movie seen as Biased by Many

Not so long ago Angelina Jolie was “more concerned” about the reception of her directorial debut movie, ‘In the Land of Blood and Honey‘, in Bosnia and Serbia than in the United States. She was eagerly awating the reactions of local audiences, whom she had portrayed in her war drama, and some of her fears turned out to be justified.
While the Bosnian public has warmly welcomed this war love story of a Serbian policeman and a Bosnian Muslim woman, the Serbian media have launched a war on the American actress, accussing her of spreading hatred toward Serbs.
Serbian daily Kurir initiated a series of articles [sr] that have seriously harmed Jolie's good reputation in Serbia:

Angelina claims in the movie that 300,000 Muslims were killed in the Bosnian war and 50,000 Muslim women were raped. The actress intends to seek the abolition of Republika Srpska as a genocidal creation. All of this was commissioned by the extreme Islamic policies, presenting Serbs as criminals, killers, murderers and rapists, and Muslims as the only victims.

Explaining the reason for Jolie's alleged pro-Muslim bias, the newspaper claimed [sr] that the movie was financially supported by Saudi direct investments of $10 million:

It is generally known that Jolie is very close to politicians in Washington. Maybe she would like the public to think it is an art film, but it is actually pure anti-Serbian propaganda. The director sends a message to the audience that Serbs are crazy wild beasts, while Muslims are innocent victims.

Momir Stojanovic, former director of the Serbian Military Intelligence Agency, also supported Kurir's claim that Muslim extremists had funded Angelina's project, saying “it is very close to the truth.”
The Serbian newspaper has triggered thousands of negative, pro-Serbian votes on imdb.com, one of the most reputable film rating sites, causing the film's score to drop drastically to 3.3 from an average of 5.4.

A screenshot of Jolie's film page on imdb.com.

Very quickly the page of Jolie's film at imdb.com turned into a virtual battlefield between Serbs and Muslims. (In the past few days, however, 11 pages of comments have somehow been reduced to five).
Sanja_Cancar says:

Angelina needs to stick to the topics she knows about, ei: ruining marriages, stealing husbands, adopting children from around the world, wearing blood. Instead, she chose the ironic path of a “peace-ambassador” that gets involved in politics she knows nothing about and creates movies that will only create more hatred… […]

Vitezbg observes:

Movie is full of political manipulations, lies, false informations etc.[…] Also 50.000 raped Muslim women is very disputed. It is famous case when ‘raped Sarajevo woman', gave birth of African child. Actually the father in this case was member of UN personal. […]

Johnny NT concludes:

Well done Angie, Goebbels and Hitler would be proud of you and your fascinating work on this movie. […]

rudeedee2 asks:

How could these people dare think to make a movie (”entertainment”) of such a horribly devastating situation ??? Seems only money is important. […] Would Angelina Jolie want to think her family has gone through hell and lost every semblance of normalcy, experienced fear, heartbreak, death and devastation only to find a so-called movie producer sees it as an artistic capital?

psysd3 reminds Angelina of the crimes of her own people:

[…] From the very beginning, by coming to America's soil on which it is estimated that, in 1500s, there were about 12 000 000 Native Americans whose number is reduced to nearly 237 000 by 1900s […]

Alex_Michael writes:

I guess I expected too much of Angelina. She might have black hair, but the movie sure look like put together by a blonde. Serbian Nazis who don't have problem killing anything from pets to babies on one side, and good Muslims on the other side… Example is Srebrenica where Serbs committed crimes by taking revenge after number of Serbian villages around Srebrenica were completely wiped out, and their inhabitants killed by Muslims from Srebrenica. This was well described in Norwegian documentary “Srebrenica a Town Betrayed”.

The Bosnian Muslim online community opposes the Serbian comments and supports Jolie's movie.
f_s is grateful to Angelina:

[…] Thank you Ms. Jolie for being the voice of the women depraved, humiliated and tortured. I recommend to everyone to see the movie especially women around the globe, to hear the unspoken, to witness the hidden. […]

Sibaak adds:

[…] We, the Bosnians do not hate. We are the most peaceful nation in the world, and thats why the facts of that war are so brutal! Because we didn't believe it could happen. We didn't believe that our friends would turn against us, rape us, kill our children, take over our houses. But they did. We that lived to tell, still, just like me, believe there are good Serbs. But what really hurts is to see how many people, just like on here, people that do not have even slightest idea of the truth, are so blind, and so hateful, because it tells me that they would do it all over again. In a way I feel its good that they are showing their real faces. Showing how ignorant they are. […]

Mela Fatkic expresses gratitude to Jolie on the movie's Facebook page. She writes:

Angelina thank you for this film, but we can not forget what it was. Thank you for the truth which not many people to reconcile, and nobody believes until they see…

Dino Gligic shares this opinion:

Angelina, thank you so much for telling the torld the truth about what Serbs did. It was worse than in that movie…

Nat Taschetti Garcia Angie admits ignorance and asks :

I just graduate on high school and i never learned about Bosnian war as i never learned about refugee camps. Do you feel like something has to be done in education, as a mom and as an activist?

Frustrated by the Serbian furious reaction, Jolie responded on Twitter:

Is it possible that the entire nation believes a concocted story from trash @KurirVesti magazine based on fake email from imaginary person?”

However, a few days later this tweet was deleted, and a new one appeared:

Don't express your love for own nation, race, religion, etc… by hating others.

On other side, Kurir pulled off the article of threatining tone: “Serbs declared war on the actress: you do not know what awaits for you Angelina” from the newspaper official site published as respond on Jolie's offensive tweet.

Jolie also tweeted this appeal:

Don't believe everything you read… “They kill good trees to put out bad newspapers.”

In an interview with Slobodna Evropa, Jolie expressed her affection for Bosnia, saying that “it is easy to be in love with Bosnia”:

I would not have created this film if Bosnikas hadn't agreed with the screenplay. I would have burned it…

Zeljko Mitrovic, the owner of Pink TV, is one of the most influental Serbs who had initially condemned Jolie because of her anti-Serbian prejudices and had even withdrawn from the movie project. Now, however, he has changed his mind:

It is wrong to attack Angelina now when the movie is finished. We could have changed something before they started making the film. Now it is pointless to generate hostility. That thing cannot be changed by additional antagonisms. She should be invited to Belgrade because people like her can help us in the future to improve the image of ourselves in the world. I invite Angelina to come to Serbia and to be a guest of TV Pink.

Written by Sasa Milosevic Global Voices