In the Land of Blood and Honey

In the Land of Blood and Honey
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Angelina Jolie
Produced by	Tim Headington Angelina Jolie Graham King Tim Moore
Written by	Angelina Jolie
Starring	Goran Kostić Zana Marjanović Rade Šerbedžija
Music by	Gabriel Yared
Cinematography	Dean Semler
Edited by	Patricia Rommel
Production company	GK Films
Distributed by	FilmDistrict
Release date	December 23, 2011 (2011-12-23) (United States)
Running time	127 minutes
Country	United States
Language	Bosnian Serbian Croatian English
Budget	$13 million
Box office	$1.1 million

In the Land of Blood and Honey is a 2011 American romantic drama film written, produced, and directed by Angelina Jolie and starring Zana Marjanović, Goran Kostić, and Rade Šerbedžija. The film, Jolie's first commercial release as a director, depicts a love story set against the background of the Bosnian War. It opened in the United States on December 23, 2011, in a limited theatrical release.

In the 1990s, in the wreckage of Sarajevo during the wrath of the Bosnian War, Danijel is a soldier fighting for the Bosnian Serbs. In a prisoner camp led by his strict father, the ruthless Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) general Nebojša, he finds Ajla, his former love, who is a Bosniak (a Bosnian Muslim) and therefore a prisoner. The Bosnian Serb policy against Bosniaks, and the secrecy of their relationship before the war, may endanger the lives of the former lovers. The differences between their ideologies end up separating the former lovers when Ajla gives in information about Danijel to her people. However, Daniele survives the attack, comes back to kill Ajla and then turns himself in as a criminal to the internationals.

Jolie got the idea to write a script of a wartime love story after traveling to Bosnia and Herzegovina as a U.N. goodwill ambassador. While writing the script she consulted with Richard Holbrooke, a U.S. diplomat and high-ranking Clinton Administration official who was one of the architects of the Dayton Agreement that put an end to the Bosnian War, General Wesley Clark, who was the director for strategic plans and policy on the United States Department of Defense's Joint Chiefs of Staff during the war, and Tom Gjelten, a foreign correspondent for NPR. After finishing the screenplay, she secured a production team and financing for the project that was being called "Untitled Bosnian Love Story." When it came down for the production team to choose a director, Jolie realized she herself wanted to direct. When casting calls and auditions were held, her name was deliberately withheld from all aspects of the project. When it was revealed to the cast that Angelina Jolie wrote the script, a number of them expressed pleasant surprise.