In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011)
In Sarajevo, 1992, Ajla Ekmečić is an ethnic Bosniak artist and lives with her sister who is a single mother of a baby boy. One evening, she meets her boyfriend, ethnic Serb police officer Danijel Vukojević, at a club. They enjoy the evening together, but many of the patrons are killed and Danijel is badly injured when the club is destroyed by artillery fire, signifying the opening salvo of the Bosnian War. Some months later, Ajla and her sister Lejla prepare to flee the now besieged city, but their neighborhood is occupied by the Army of Republika Srpska before they can escape. The men are separated from the women, and then taken away to be executed, while Ajla and several other younger, more attractive women are taken away on buses to a Serb rape camp. In the camp, the soldiers instruct the women on what life will be like and then ask the women what sort of duties they can perform.
A doctor named Esma volunteers to perform medical services. Another woman says she can sew; rather than use her skills, an officer rapes her in front of the other women to demoralize them. Before another soldier can do the same to Ajla, the camp’s commander takes her away, where it is revealed he is none other than Danijel. The former couple struggle to grasp the magnitude of their predicament, especially given that inter-ethnic relationships are forbidden, and any evidence of such a relationship could compromise both Danijel and his father Nebojša, a General of the VRS Main Staff. Danijel tells Ajla that to shelter her from sexual abuse at the hands of the other soldiers, he has said that she is his “personal property.” They begin an intense love affair, but Ajla is deeply disturbed by the horrors of the camp, and she subsequently makes numerous attempts to escape, all of which fail. The escape attempts greatly anger Danijel and compound his paranoia; he frequently lashes out at her.
Date of download: 2015-11-11T17:22:34+00:00
| Cast: |
Goran Kostic
Zana Marjanovic
Rade Serbedzija
Vanessa GlodjoIn Sarajevo, 1992, Ajla Ekmečić is an ethnic Bosniak artist and lives with her sister who is a single mother of a baby boy. One evening, she meets her boyfriend, ethnic Serb police officer Danijel Vukojević, at a club. They enjoy the evening together, but many of the patrons are killed and Danijel is badly injured when the club is destroyed by artillery fire, signifying the opening salvo of the Bosnian War. Some months later, Ajla and her sister Lejla prepare to flee the now besieged city, but their neighborhood is occupied by the Army of Republika Srpska before they can escape. The men are separated from the women, and then taken away to be executed, while Ajla and several other younger, more attractive women are taken away on buses to a Serb rape camp. In the camp, the soldiers instruct the women on what life will be like and then ask the women what sort of duties they can perform.
A doctor named Esma volunteers to perform medical services. Another woman says she can sew; rather than use her skills, an officer rapes her in front of the other women to demoralize them. Before another soldier can do the same to Ajla, the camp’s commander takes her away, where it is revealed he is none other than Danijel. The former couple struggle to grasp the magnitude of their predicament, especially given that inter-ethnic relationships are forbidden, and any evidence of such a relationship could compromise both Danijel and his father Nebojša, a General of the VRS Main Staff. Danijel tells Ajla that to shelter her from sexual abuse at the hands of the other soldiers, he has said that she is his “personal property.” They begin an intense love affair, but Ajla is deeply disturbed by the horrors of the camp, and she subsequently makes numerous attempts to escape, all of which fail. The escape attempts greatly anger Danijel and compound his paranoia; he frequently lashes out at her.
