ANGELINA JOLIE: "LIVING INSIDE WAR"

Hollywood 'superstar' Angelina Jolie caused controversy recently when rumours circulated that her new film would feature  a romance between a Muslim woman and her Serbian rapist during the Bosnia/Serba war in the 1990's.

This confusion over the plot lead to Bosnian government officials temporarily revoking her film permit.

Angelina, a UN Goodwill Ambassador, spoke to Návai Anikó from Vasárnapi Hírek magazine about the film.

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INTERVIEW

Q: What gave you the idea for the story?

I`ve had a lot of frustration with how long it takes to intervene.....or understand what`s happening within a conflict.

For the world to give assistance to these people in need, and get the right information out to the international community.

I`ve met with so many people over the years, and in some way this story could take place in any country.

The essence of it is we meet people on the eve of the war and we see what their lives could have been.

We meet them as young people, and it`s a lot of hope and wonderful lives that come out from Yugoslavia. They`re an extraordinarily unique people. And then the war begins in Bosnia and it`s how even people who try to hold on to their humanity as long as they can are effected, it is about living inside war and witnessing the death of your friends and family, and what that eventually does to people and how it takes its toll on them.

And it started for me with just that thought that if there`s a way to intervene even in one year what damage has been done ... But for four years, five years? Look at Darfur now! Things go on for so long without proper assistance and intervention.

Q: The conflict in Yugoslavia had a long pre-history and has had a long-lasting history after the war was over.

It`s true. I had to learn so much.

Because it started out with a simple story and I knew I had to get a great education in this part of the world in order to complete it. A lot of it came from the research I`ve done.

I watched documentaries and films, I met with experts, but in the end I cast local people and they all sat with me and told me their stories and walked me through what they did during the war, how they survived the war and what their families went through.

So they helped me complete the story. There are people from all parts and all sides of the conflict in the film and they all talked to me about how they felt. So we tried to make it kind of a collective voice.

Q: The little you`ve shared so passionately about the film so far was that you don`t want to make a political statement and this is a movie about people. But sometimes you must take political sides.

Well, there isn`t an intended political statement.

My goal was try to talk to people from all sides of the situation and allow them to have a voice. Allow them to have to go through what they went through and express it whether it be extreme cruelty or the loss of humanity or the extreme sense of hope or the beauty, whatever it was. I think if you represent something right, it`s not your view.

It is their view. It`s a combination of views from different sides. And they are all stating what they believe in and they`re all making their arguments and the characters are all going through different things and they`re all doing different things and in the end they`re all being affected.

If there`s a political statement it`s that hopefully people will watch it and say where was I when this was happening? How did I not know ? Why did I not do anything? Why did my country not do more?

Why did it take so long? And next time when this happens what can we do to prevent? You would like to believe it couldn`t happen today.

But I think there`s something about this time in history especially because it happened so recently that  reminds everybody that it does happen today. We haven`t learned to deal with these issues, decades after World War Two. Hopefully it will also be a beautiful story where you get to know some of the people of the former Yugoslavia.

Q: Why do you keep referring to Yugoslavia, a country that doesn`t exist anymore?

Because when I asked all these people in this film what`s your nationality or where you`re from even in the casting tapes, they`d say I was born in Yugoslavia.

Now I`m something somebody tells me I am, but I was born Yugoslavian. Now a lot of them on paper are one thing or another or some even have to check "other" on forms because their parents are from different backgrounds. So now they`re Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian, but then and at birth they were Yugoslavian.

Q: How did you make sure of historical and political accuracy?

I was never intentionally trying to make something political.

I was always trying to make it human. And so I tried to stay as close to real human stories that I knew had happened and I talked to people that really went through it and let these artists really express their true stories. And so in that there was truth. The more you dig in the more you find. This region is very complex, and there`re many opinions. There`re very passionate opinions on all sides for different ways of handling all the different scenes. But there were certain things that everybody agreed on.

And in the end there was nothing in the script that any one actor said "you can`t have or this doesn`t make sense". So I let them say what felt right or what felt wrong and then we`d investigate different elements of the story to see if we can find diffe rent research on one element or one scene, and I tried to talk to as many people as I could and get a kind of a general sense.

But at the same time I had to remember that we`re not making a documentary, and I couldn`t possibly cover this war. I can tell a piece of this war and I can tell a story that I think is worth telling and hopefully within it there`re many voices represented and I hope it will make people talk and discuss this war and these situations again, and remember the people that went through this. But I tried to also remember how to give characters and a dramatic story, and try to tell a story that would also be engaging for people whose focus isn`t politics. Because they don`t necessarily follow this kind of stuff in the news, or they wouldn`t necessarily want to see a political or a foreign film, but we hope they will be open to our film. Which is why we say it`s "a love story", only it`s a different kind of love story.

Q: The internet has been abuzz with you going, then not going to Bosnia to shoot parts of the film. What`s the latest?

We`re trying to make a film about not one particular person or group because that`s not the voice of the people.

We`re going to Bosnia, yes. Anybody telling a story about somebody else`s history has to respect their sensitivities that they can never understand and they have to be extremely respectful and extremely careful. And I know here everybody on this crew is coming from the right place and their heart is in the right place and wanting to do a good thing and wanting to do what all the people feel comfortable with.

If you`ve really lived through something it`s just so personal to you that there`s never anything enough to do or say the right thing. I have so much love for this part of the world, and I`ve got to know this cast from all over Yugoslavia and they`ve all become dear fr iends of mine and they`ve taught me so much.

Q: Is the film going to be black and white or color?

It`s shot in color but it could transfer to black and white. We haven`t decided that. I can show you... we put a series of pictures together in black and white and it was beautiful. But the important thing I want to make sure that we make a film for people who just want to go to the movies to watch a love story. To not be put off by anything that seems too heavy So we want to walk that fine line to make it accessible to everybody because it`s important for as many people to see it.

Q: When are you going to release it?

I don`t know. I have lots of people giving me lots of opinions. I just want to do it right.

I have to go back and edit both versions at the same time  in Los Angeles, because Brad`s working there, so we`ll be in LA.

And if it hopefully turns out well and people respond to it...we`ll see.

But of course I want to pay respect to the area and the cast and the people, so I am listening to them and where they want it released. I still just hope to put a good film together.

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Rape victims tell Angelina Jolie to leave stories untold

The women's stories are all the same, about men carrying automatic weapons and flashlights, and breaking into their homes in the middle of the night at the beginning of the Balkan war in April 1992.

After the men had been taken away or killed, the Muslim girls and women were repeatedly raped for weeks or even months by Serb soldiers, before managing to flee in the summer of 1992. Since then the women have had to live with the trauma of what happened, and have spent nearly two decades looking for justice.

The ordeal of the Bosniak women has been thrust into the spotlight again, after it was announced recently that Angelina Jolie is to make a film which will allegedly tell of the love between a Serb rapist and his Muslim victim.

But for victims of mass rapes in Bosnia, the idea of their stories being retold is almost torture.

Their faces offer horrified expressions, their hands shake and bodies tremble as they speak, in tears, about events that changed their lives forever.

UK Independent

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SOURCE:

Vasárnapi Hírek: With untitled love from Angelina

FURTHER READING

Bosnia: Struggle to Overcome Male Rape Taboo

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