Hollywood superstar Angelina Jolie’s ambitious directorial debut, a love story set in the background of the Bosnian civil war, has run into trouble after officials in Bosnia revoked permission to shoot in the country.
The authorities decided to revoke the permission after a women war victims group complained about the film, which according to the Bosnian press is a love story between a Muslim victim and her rapist, a Serb. The revoking of the filming license is a way to express Bosnian people’s “disapproval”, announced Gavrilo Grahovac, the culture minister of the Muslim-Croat federation which is one of the two entities in post-war Bosnia.
“Since the request (for the shooting) is not in accordance with the law, it is incomplete and not accompanied by the necessary script, minister Gavrilo Grahovac decided to annul the permit,” the ministry said in a statement.
The Academy award winning actress is currently in Hungary, where she has begun filming the drama set in the times of the civil war that ravaged the European nation. “This is misleading history. Among thousands of testimonies by women raped during the war, there is not a single one that tells of a love story between a victim and her rapist. We will not allow anyone to falsify our pain,” said Bakira Hasecic, the head of the Women Victims of War Association in Sarajevo.
Grahovac added that they will not let Jolie shoot the movie in Bosnia unless they are provided the script which disproves the Bosnian media reports.
The Salt beauty cast Bosnian actress Zana Marjanovic as the lead star in the forthcoming movie, which is set during the Bosnian war of 1992-1995.