In times of war, women are a commodity that can be discarded like used facial tissue. This message was repeated over and over again throughout this film. Due to the breakup of Yugoslavia, a territorial conflict exploded with ethnic cleansing, systematic mass rape and genocide. I have to give credit to Angelina Jolie for her effort in bringing this story to the silver screen. She was the writer, director and one of the producers. However, the movie’s focus was not about the why and how of this horrific war. The story was about Danijel, played by Goran Kostic (Hannibal Rising, Children of Men), an officer in the Serbian army who re-encounters Ajla, played by Zana Marjanovic (Snow, It’s Hard to Be Nice), a woman he was dating before the conflict, who now is a captive in his camp. For me, the story was a re-telling of Romeo & Juliet, but not as well done.  Also, the directing was not strong enough to give this movie some needed power. Angelina did accomplish in showing us how sexist men can be, especially when they are in uniform. Bosnian/Serbian/English.

2 1/4 stars

http://youtu.be/wDBU8CqU0dg