Serbia snubs Jolie's Balkans war film premiere; only 12 show up

Interesting point.

The Serbs don't want to be reminded of the wholesale slaughter of innocent Muslim civilians they committed on a grand scale in an attempt to "cleanse" Bosnia and make it their own. Not only did they kill thousands of men and boys, they raped the women so they would bear Serbian children.

I'd rather put more stock on the people who were there:

http://epakistantimes.blogspot.com/2011/12/angelina-jolie-hailed-for-balkan-war.html

The film also won the Bosnian war victims from groups alike.

"The film is a deeply experienced all these things the victims," Murat Tahirovic, who is responsible for prisoners of war association, especially in Sarajevo.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/304646/jolie-surprises-critics/

"She really succeeded in telling the story of the whole war in her film and to show the most characteristic situations that detainees faced - mass executions, rapes, (being used as) human shields and all the other horrors," Tahirovic said.

Meanwhile, the head of an association of mothers of Srebrenica massacre victims, who had earlier spoken out against Jolie after the media rumours, said the final product was really an excellent movie. "It will never be possible to make a movie that would show everything that went on in Bosnia during the war," said Hatidza Mehmedovic. She said she wanted to "thank Angelina for her intellectual and financial investment."

(And I've already survived thru three coups d'etat living next to a large military base... bullets, bombs, planes - no thanks. No armchair QBing on this side.)

Guess the audience were victims of genocide....

While the movie might not tell the true story, I guess the Serbs are in denial of the genocide they inflicted the Bosnians.

How did Putin get dragged into this?

The Serbs did not commit genocide. They committed war crimes in an effort to ethnically cleanse Serb regions of Bosnia. The crimes were ugly and I don't agree with them, but they were not "genocide." What the Hutus did to the Tutsis in Rwanda is probably closer to genocide.

As for silencing an opinion that differed from their own, it was the Americans who bombed a Serbian television station and killed more than a dozen employees because they didn't like the station's opinion/propoganda. The Americans demanded "equal time" to broadcast their own propaganda, the Serbs refused and kept broadcasting. So the Americans bombed them. Later the station manager was held responsible for the murders and put on trial in the Hague and convicted. Funny how "justice" works in the West. But don't expect our future cat lady to do a movie about that.

@ Lovenot - I spent six months in Bosnia after the war. What I spoke about is from being there, seeing the devastation first-hand, and talking to victims and their families. So pull your foot out of your mouth before you choke on it. The Serbs (backed by Russia) used heavy weapons like tanks and anti-aircrat guns against human targets. They pulled the plumbing and wiring out of homes to make them unlivable for survivors. They threw so many Muslim bodies into the Drina river that the dam got clogged. Do I need to go on, or are you really in denial? Oh, and I never saw the movie you assumed I had.

Sensei258, do you want to say that there were victims only on one side of the conflict, and the atrocities were committed only by Serbians? There were victims and cruelties on both sides of the conflict. Pointing the finger at and blaming just one side as the evil side is wrong, uneducated and immature. The USA decided to interfere and take part in the war against Serbia but it does not mean that the other side was not wrong or equally evil. What I hated the most is the destruction of historical and cultural landmarks in Belgrade by American army without discrimination which showed their lack of respect for European art and culture and complete ignorance. The same ignorance the Americans show in Afganistan peeing on the dead bodies of their enemies and burning Koran books.

I want to add that the USA had excellent movies, real masterpieces about war in the past, especially about the war in Vietnam. I would like to see such honest and socially responsible movies again...

I think it is very interesting to read LoveNot's comments. Thank you kindly.

@ Lovenot - of course there were atrocities on both sides. "Pointing the finger at and blaming just one side as the evil side is wrong, uneducated and immature" You're good at talking, but I didn't say the Serbs were evil (an opinion), just that they used heavy weapons against civilians (fact). Let me ask you which is evil, the person firing anti-aircraft guns at unarmed unprotected people, or the ones being blown apart by those guns? Which is evil, the unarmed men and boys herded into a building, or the ones machine gunning and grenading them?

Looking back on all Serbian History, i feel sorry for them in the 14thcentury to the 17th ish, muslim peoples of the ottomans proformed far worse attrocities over a larger length of time on serbia. Before the ottoman turks there were no peoples of muslim faith. So understandably the not so smart (for good reasons) patriotic people of serbia unleashed a hand bag of shit every chance they got. too preoccupied with lazar and the first battle that led to their subjigation. As a Croat i have to say, i have seen a lot from serbs and sorry to say it but they are a mentally screwed social society. they have had it hard though.

Hahaha, a lot of Bosnians think it's realistic - and they were there!

you can continue to watch the american propaganda movies and think simplistically as the above post.

@LoveNot Hahaha your comment sounds straight out of another movie. Sounds a bit Russian actually.

Putin: Don't be fooled by American propaganda. NetNinja: Dude it's a MOVIE. You don't like it, don't watch it. Miss out on it if you please.

The Serbs committed genocide. They sought to silence any opinion that differed from their own. They can cry me a river for all I care. They let their brothers, sisters, family and friends murder indiscriminately cause they found the other race different from themselves with other beliefs. They sought to eradicate than to communicate. They should be embarrassed.

Which is evil, the unarmed men and boys herded into a building, or the ones machine gunning and grenading them?

I insist that if you have carefully made your research, you will know that there were innocent victims both from the Christian and Muslim population (about 65000 Bosnians and 30000 Serbs and 8000 Croats). It was a civil war. There were many casualties. But I want to talk about something else, the role of the American army in Yugoslavia. Why there is not true movie about the atrocities of the American army? We have only movies showing the Americans as a heroes in the Bosnian war (Behind Enemy lines).

As we, people living in Japan, are facing high radiation because of the terrible nuclear accident in Fukushima and we are very sensitive to subject of high radiation now and everybody became a nuclear expert on JT and everybody seems to understand the horrible effect of high radiation, I would like to talk about what happened in the Balkans after the "brave" American army carpet bombed from the air Serbia and Kosovo with weapons using depleted uranium, as nobody here seems to care about the people of the Balkans suffering the consequences of American militarism. I want to quote what BBC from then said on the subject:

A British scientist says the Americans' use of depleted uranium weapons in the war with Serbia is likely to cause 10,000 extra deaths from cancer. A British biologist, Roger Coghill, says he expects the depleted uranium (DU) weapons used by US aircraft over Kosovo will cause more than 10,000 fatal cancer cases.

Yes, 10000 deaths from cancer. The Cancer will spread not only in Serbia, but over the neighboring countries. Please compare the radiation people of the Balkans took in to the radiation we are taking now from Fukushima, seems American army caused us to suffer a small nuclear accident there:

In mid-June scientists at Kozani in northern Greece were reporting that radiation levels were 25% above normal whenever the wind blew from the direction of Kosovo. And Bulgarian researchers reported finding levels eight times higher than usual within Bulgaria itself, and up to 30 times higher in Yugoslavia....Mr Coghill says the maximum effect will be reached about six months after the war, and he thinks the first cancers - probably leukaemias - will start to show up about a year after that. "Throughout the Balkan region, I calculate that there will be an extra 10,150 deaths from cancer because of the use of DU. That will include local people, K-FOR personnel, aid workers, everyone." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/408122.stm

Now where is the Hollywood movie about this? About the destroyed nature, the deformed babies etc....

You're good at talking

You see only 1% of my abilities. I would like everybody to see that there is no pure good and poor evil...there are always two or more sides of one story, and people should try to see the wider picture. If Serbian people were dissatisfied with Angelina's movie, it means she was not able to reach their hearts and she was not able to see and show their story. I even do not know why Angelina tried to make a movie about the war in Bosnia when there are too many movies already on this subject... I think somebody accused her of plagiarism too (not sure have to research this).

Hahaha, a lot of Bosnians think it's realistic - and they were there!

I do not know what is so funny. Maybe you have not read about the protests of Bosnian people against that movie either.

I guess the movie is made to please mainly the American audience. It is made by a person who lacks the sensitivity of a person from the troubled area, lacks the cultural and historical knowledge, and lacks respect to people from both sides of the conflict. And to lostrune2, maybe you have never seen the misery of wars except from Hollywood movies. You have never experienced the sound of airplanes and bombs over your head.

As you can read in the article, the movie is freely distributed in Serbia and not forbidden and censured, anybody can go and see it If people do not like it, it is their response to the makers of the movie. It won't show many things. For example how American army bombed the Serb TV station, a maternity unit and Chinese embassy among their targets. Bombing an embassy and killing its employees was direct attack on China. Also bombs fell not only in Serbia but all the surrounding countries (collateral damage they call it in the USA). They bombed and destroyed a bridge over Danube causing ecological catastrophe in the river and ceasing of Danube ship transportation for months. For me the most heroic American act was the bombing of the maternity hospital. The babies born there were obviously American enemies too. Also the so called ethnic cleansing was caused as much from Serbian / Bosnian armies as from the American attacks. Muslim people, christian people were running away from the armed conflict on ground and air. In the end people did not know what they were running from, they were bombed from the air, attacked from official and non official armies. In a conflict like this everybody is guilty, not only one side. Serbian people feel they were wronged because historical places from their lands were taken from their country.

Out of 12 viewers in Belgrade Thursday, “several people walked out before the end” of the screening,

funny and sad. Angelina does not understand the problems of the Balkans, she assumed that if the USA bombed Serbia, Serbia was the villain and the other side the victims. She should have made a movie about the victims of the American bombings, and the love between the American pilot who bombed the maternity unit and a woma having his baby in the unit. It is more realistic.