In the land of blood and honey (2011) - Romance / Drama

Angelina Jolie's directorial debut will be such a serious and heart touching movie - I never imagined. And when I saw it - I seriously couldn't believe what I witnessed. Amazing. Rocking. Shocking. I am sure the reality would be way too worse than what we see on screen. I remember those days vaguely as this was one of those chapters of history that we all witnessed LIVE - up close and personal, other than the gulf war and september 11 attacks. Its a must watch for all who love movies based out on reality with enough drama and a damn good love story woven in between. Though they do not claim it to be reality based but its hard not to believe that.

Its a movie with a beautiful start but its tough to say its a beautiful movie. The very first scene you see a beautiful Bosnian Muslim girl dating an Army Man, dancing and all happy. It sets you thinking - anything could go wrong anytime :) and Bang!! There goes off a bomb and the mood of the movie changes in an instant. What you see next is a war torn country and its people struggling to survive. Women are taken over by army as sex slaves and men are killed for no rhyme or reason. While the women are transported to an army base, you see a guy running on the road and next moment you see - he is shot, who was he? Why was he shot? No explanation. Anyone going against the army will be shot without any warning. I really wondered why they killed so many innocent people from their own country? I guess that's what Ms Jolie wanted to point out through the movie.

Fate makes the couple meet again but this time the setting is different. She is a slave and he is working under his father in the army. He tries to save her as much as he could. But you witness the brutality on slaves by his colleagues. The way women are beaten and they do all the cooking, cleaning and everything they could to keep the guys happy. Its shocking to see how they break plates unnecessarily, walk over their hands, thrash and kill them just like that. Life has no value - its so cheap for them - there is no law and order - mind it, this all happened in early 90's when we all were going to school and graduating in our own respective countries.
He finally takes her out of the camp and puts her in an apartment and her life changes for a very brief period of time. He even let's her find out her lost sister who an infant and that's why she was spared from army.

Later its shown that even the kid was brutally thrown from the third floor and was killed. Its so shocking. Yet they survive and unite again. Till his father finds out that he has kept a girl in an apartment. He tells him not to trust that girl and to get rid of her. She again gets raped by a guy who was his dad's man and he kills the same guy in revenge later. So much happens in couple of years of war torn Bosnia and even the ending is so heart wrenching that I actually felt so sad for them. Wished it could all end in a happy note but if only wishes were to come true.

The pain and struggle that these people go through makes you think hard - why is that we just can't live peacefully? What is all that war, struggle and fighting for? Its so painful to see so many innocent people losing everything they ever had in no time at all. And how hard it must be to overcome all that - if you somehow still survive. The figures that they show in the end credits of the movie are shocking too. At least 50000 women were raped and thousands were killed. No count. Its shocking indeed.

Its a must watch for all as I am sure - it does makes us feel that we are indeed living in heaven - in comparison to those who have lived through war affected countries and have survived. So many are still coming to terms with life as we speak and go through our lives. Its a sort of an eye opener for all. Do not miss it - if you like reality based movies.