Angelina Jolie says she’s nervous and excited about the upcoming premiere in Sarajevo of her Bosnian war movie “In the Land of Blood and Honey.”

The film, which is showing at the Berlin International Film Festival on Saturday, is set to make its full debut in the Bosnian capital on Feb. 14, though it already has been shown to some groups there.

Already released in the U.S., Jolie’s directorial debut is a drama about a Serb soldier who finds his ex-lover, a Muslim Bosnian woman, among sex slaves in a camp.

“I’m nervous and I’m excited,” Jolie said of the Bosnian premiere. “I’ll probably cry through the entire thing.”

“I’ll be very, very moved because, of course, a lot of the people coming are the victims of war so it’s going to be heavy,” she added.

Jolie, 36, said that “it didn’t take much for me to be driven” while directing the film, noting that her cast lived through the 1992-95 war in Bosnia.

Actress Vanesa Glodjo, she said, crossed Sarajevo’s “Sniper Alley” — named after the heavy fire by sharpshooters that made it notoriously dangerous — daily to get to her theater school.

“Art meant that much to her that she risked her life every day,” Jolie said. “The privilege you feel to have the opportunity to work with such a dedicated and such an extraordinary human being made it all … just wonderful.”

Glodjo said that Jolie “gave me the words and opportunity to express what I lived during the war.”

Jolie’s film is showing outside the main competition at the Berlin festival.

The film has triggered outrage among Serbs although it has yet to be premiered in Serbia and the Serb-controlled parts of Bosnia. Authorities rejected a request by some Serb war veterans’ organizations to ban the film because of alleged anti-Serb bias.

Jolie stressed during a press conference at the festival Saturday that “this is not a documentary … it’s an artistic interpretation.”

“I tried to bring as much as I could but there are many different sides to war, many different sides to this war,” she said.

“This was this particular story, but there are many different stories to be told in this war and many different ways to tell the story of this war.”

Source: PJ Star

Here is an interview of Angelina and Vanessa Glodjo from Willie Waffle. Check it out below:

Marie Claire is holding a live chat with director/actress Angelina Jolie tomorrow January 12 8 pm EST to promote her movie, In The Land of Blood and Honey. You must have a Facebook account to be able to ask question to Angelina! Unfortunately, I have other appointments during that time so I cannot attend. But for other fans, you can definitely participate as long as you have a Facebook account. Click on the link below to participate!

Angelina Jolie’s directorial debut about the Bosnian war and a drama made by and starring her ex-husband Billy Bob Thornton will feature at the Berlin film festival next month, organisers said Monday.

Jolie will present her harrowing drama “In the Land of Blood and Honey” out of competition after winning praise in Bosnia for its unflinching take on the brutal 1992-1995 conflict, filmed in local languages with a home-grown cast.

It will screen on the opening weekend of the February 9-19 event, organisers said in a statement.

Thornton, who won a screenwriting Oscar for his own first outing as a feature film director, 1996′s “Sling Blade”, will premiere his latest feature “Jayne Mansfield’s Car” in the competition for the Golden Bear top prize.

The Russian-US co-production, set in the 1960s, is about two clashing families and stars Robert Duvall and Kevin Bacon as well as Thornton, whom Jolie divorced in 2003 after three scandal-tinged years of marriage.

Other entries unveiled Monday include director Alain Gomis’s French-Senegalese production “Aujourd’hui” (Today), German art-house favourite Christian Petzold’s “Barbara” and Italian brothers Paolo and Vittorio Taviani with “Caesar Must Die”.

German-Norwegian picture “Gnade” (Mercy) by Matthias Glasner and Franco-Swiss drama “Sister” by Ursula Meier starring Lea Seydoux from Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris” and Gillian Anderson will also vie for the Golden Bear.

Rounding out the list were German-Greek production “Meteora” about a monk led into temptation by a nun, Portuguese drama “Tabu”, Hungarian feature “Just the Wind” and “Home for the Weekend” by German auteur Hans-Christian Schmid.

The festival, which ranks among the top three European film showcases, announced last week that it would open with a drama set around the French Revolution, “Farewell My Queen”, starring German-born Hollywood actress Diane Kruger as Marie Antoinette.

British director Mike Leigh will chair the jury while two-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep will accept an honorary Golden Bear.

Source: AFP

Here is the video that you can download. Sorry the files were rather large so I had to divided in 7 parts.

Part 1 of 7

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You can check out the official site, where you can find pictures, story, history and the trailer.