There is so much wrong about this, I am not sure where to start

[dangermousie]

I don't follow American entertainment very closely (after all, I already obsess over Korean one and books and I do need to sleep and play with Baby Mousie sometimes) but I was vaguely aware of Angelina Jolie making her directorial debut in a movie which was a love story set during the civil war in former Yugoslavia. "Hmmmm,can be interesting" thought I but that was the extent of it.

Until today, when I learned that "[h]er directorial debut deals with a Bosnian Muslim woman falling for a Serbian soldier who rapes her during the Bosnian war."

I repeat: Her directorial debut deals with a Bosnian Muslim woman falling for a Serbian soldier who rapes her during the Bosnian war.

EXCUSE ME????

THE FUCK???????

Just to make it clear, this isn't supposed to be some hard-hitting look at damages of war. No, this has been escribed as a sweeping star-crossed love story.

Can I barf in the corner now?

Is she going to do a follow-up about a Jewish woman and a SS officer who kills her family but then they fall for each other? Or how about a romantic comedy about a Tutsi widow having to move in with a Hutu militia member who torched her place and killed her neighbors and then they bond?

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH HER, SERIOUSLY.

I like messed-up love stories, but there is messed-up and there is really sick and disgusting and "how could you even think about this?".

But maybe I am just being a curmudgeon. Who doesn't adore love blossoming between a genocidal rapist and his victim? Awwwwwwww.

Comments

[grace-om.livejournal.com]

She says that's an untrue rumor.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Well, she got banned from Bosnia because of it, so the rumor must have some teeth behind it - if it's untrue she should clarify it to them asap so she'd be allowed to film.

[grace-om.livejournal.com]

A rumor must be true? Come on. People jump to wrong conclusions on incomplete information all the time. She is, apparently, trying to sort it out. However, even if it's just a love story between a Bosnian woman who's been raped by a Serbian man, and a *different Serbian man who didn't rape anyone* it *still* might not be a good film to make. In other settings, such a basic plot might work, but...

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

True but it's not a random blogger jumping to conclusions - it's a government ministry which I think makes a difference.

[grace-om.livejournal.com]

It's a government ministry under pressure from Bosnian rape victims. Of course the government should respond to the sensitivities of their people -- who have suffered so much. Still, the whole thing may be based on a misunderstanding (consider the furor over Shirley Sherrod, for example).

[grace-om.livejournal.com]

From what she says, it's a total misunderstanding and she's resubmitted the application to shoot along with a complete script.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/15/angelina-jolie-to-bosnia-_n_764078.html

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I guess we'll see if she gets her permit back.

[grace-om.livejournal.com]

Even if she doesn't, that's hardly proof that it's a "rape love story" -- just that Ministry prefers not to have a controversy.

I'm really not that interested in defending her -- it may be a crappy unwise movie. I just finding it disturbing when people jump to conclusions and outrage, and tweet it all over the world, without trying to learn the fuller details.

[sisterjune.livejournal.com]

Yeah I think the movie is a bad idea period but its scary how fast and furious misinformation can spread in this day and age and people are kicking up a fuss already without doing any further investigation and I mean this is a serious thing so before I'd want to believe Jolie would make such a film I'd want to do a bit more reading first. That said this is a sensitive topic to many (both the rape and the vicious ethnic war/genocide) so the knee jerk reactions are understandable to me all the same.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Well, I saw it on reputable blogs but I am sure the correction can/will come out just as fast.

[hollyxu.livejournal.com]

I hope it's not the case, because adding romantic!rape (okay, excuse me, I just vomited a little in my mouth) to MASSIVE GENOCIDE and WAR is just stupid.

Then again, this is the woman who swoops around the world in a private jet to save babies from oppression, so who knows.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

LOL. When I was pregnant, Mr Mousie and I used to joke that we were lucky our baby would be too boring for her to rescue :)

[lightsjustright.livejournal.com]

Unbelievably disgusting idea.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yes

[arathesane.livejournal.com]

Yes, eeriewhisper tweeted that the other day. I was appalled. Look, if it was some kind of disturbing psychodrama - something akin to Stockholm Syndrome/how a captive person might learn to "care" for someone holding them - that I could see. Something similar to Death and the Maiden. Which is not a love story by any means, but I could see making a film similar to Ariel Dorfman's play or the film that was based on it. Ugh I'm an admirer of Dorfman but when I think about who directed that film ... Anyway.

It might not be true but since the Bosnian government revoked her license to film, well, it's fishy. Possibly there could have been a miscommunication. It's quite possible.

I hope that's the case. I really do.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly.

[arathesane.livejournal.com]

It's, well, it's odd. Hopefully, it was a misunderstanding.

(Ha, now I'm chuckling a little over how many times I repeated certain words in my first reply. I've been up well over a day. It's been a crazy week. Just worrying about my mom's health - she's fine now, but it's been an issue for a few weeks - so I'm glad that it made sense at all.)

[ficchica.livejournal.com]

This is an unsubstantiated rumour. Jolie and the main actress have denied it. I think I'll believe them over a newspaper who didn't even publish the script. As for the government department they didn't even read the script when they granted the permit, nor did they ask.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I hope so.

[shiegra.livejournal.com]

Actually, no.

"They no longer have the authorisation to shoot in Bosnia. They will have it if they send us the scenario with a story which will be different from what we have been told by people who read it," Grahovac told the radio.

In other words, they wouldn't give them the script. Which is kind of telling.

When the Women - Victims of War organisation announced they would boycott the film a few weeks ago, Jolie apparently sent them a letter asking them not to "pass judgement on the film beforehand, especially before they've seen it." Not 'I'm not trying to play off horrific trauma as a sweeping gesture of love!" just 'don't judge it before you see it.' Which I've heard before, most recently when Amanda Palmer was making a gross picture out of herself.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yes, andthey were telling the press 'wait and see complex story blah blah' which is setting off alarm bells to me.

[shiegra.livejournal.com]

The way I'm seeing it, the signs are pointing to either either true, or it's so painfully entitled it's also offensive.

[sisterjune.livejournal.com]

I remember reading about this at ontd_feminism and there was a few people from that part of the world (but not specifically bosnia) saying how this seemed to be an unfounded claim so far. That the film was about this subject, and I also could swear I saw something in my paper and on yahoo today stating that Jolie had NOT been banned from Bosnia for any such thing but I need to find it again (curse my disorganized links). But I have no idea how true any of this is. It could be all true, partly true or not true at all. Until then I am reserving judgement. That said, the just the idea that such an intense and violent conflict should be used as backdrop to a love story just annoys me to death esp since Jolie is not bosnian or serbian and as far as I know has no connection to that place. I hope the bit about rape is NOT true because I really expected better of Jolie and also because the last thing this country needs is a film where a woman falls in love with her rapist, just NO.

[shiegra.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I definitely hope this is all a mix-up. Goodness knows that bureaucracies/red tape situations seem to feed on or at least generate at an insane rate chaos confusion.

[december-clouds.livejournal.com]

I think my eyes just rolled out of my head at reading this. :/

Is she going to do a follow-up about a Jewish woman and a SS officer who kills her family but then they fall for each other?

Barftastic, I wouldn't be surprised.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, ugh ugh ugh

[orangebreeze.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's sick. I knew there was a reason why I didn't like her :/

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I normally like her OK but if this is true, barf.