Angelina Jolie's "Dogville" taped over Central Europe.

Rating: 10/10 (29 January 2012)

Angelina Jolie movie is a very important cinematic piece, yet to the casual viewer who just wants to spend few hours of mindless entertainment, this may be a piece with lots of heavy lifting. The premises of the movie are based on fragments of war-time stories. Most of them come from Sarajevo neighborhood of Grbavica, which was the closest part of the downtown Sarajevo area held by Serbs. Stories about militia terror are not "historical inaccuracies". They are accurate. Just to mention one name from the real life - Veselin Vlahovic. This is man who committed wide-spread atrocities and is indicted for death of at least 27 people whose families are willing to come and witness in front of the court. His specialty was taking helpless and hapless victims out of their homes to houses converted into prisons or simply sites with graves dough out where he would threaten to murder them and either collect all of their money or commit the crimes. But he is not the exception, he is just very famous, vile and took exceptional enjoyment in carrying out this task.
The story of rape is very important in Bosnia which is still very closed society. In this society, there is no greater shame for a woman then to be raped. Some of rape victims were held imprisioned long enough to be more then 6 months pregnant, then discharged, unable to abort the children of their rapist. Just imagine the convoluted mind that would organize and orchestrate such injustice on to anyone, I do not care what you cultural of belief system is. And this is just what has been done. There are women in Bosnia, single-parent mothers who are raising their children, father by rapist who never have even been brought to the justice. The reasons are too numerous -> most women did not want to get exposed, some were tired of constant uphill battles and legal quagmire, the other ones just came to accept what has happened and chose to only move forward and not dwell on the past.
The most disappointing part of Serbian government perpetuated, organized and orchestrated crimes is widely disseminated propaganda that Serbian views and Serbian story was not heard. Only nationalism dominated and uneducated mind can think that what has happened and what has been documented, not in Angelina Jolie's movie, in Hague War Criminal Tribunal, in books written by Ed Vulliamy ("Season's in Hell) or Bill Carter (Fools Rush in, Story of war and redemption), is somehow unilateral. Serbs need to find a way of how to cope with the crimes they committed from 1991-2001. Because, the greatest crime was to sentence their children to bear the same burden which lead them nowhere, except to the bottom of European economy for blatant ignorance of 21st century human rights.
Among the human rights, there is a right to love and be loved. This movie is a portrayal of how love can be consumed by hate, and how war can turn something loving and benign, into something vile and malignant. This is as deep as a war has ever gotten.
This movie will not leave you feeling good. It has no happy ending. But it's a story that should have been heard much earlier then 2012. To get involved in such a heavy and political movies as director's debut, Angelina Jolie has utmost credit and can only be admired for effort to make a movie which is not going to be Hollywood blockbuster, but rather a story of suffering, asking from viewers for empathy. Nothing more, then to feel what these people went through. I know that most resonant question after seen the movie will be - did this happen to anyone. And answer is - yes. And, not only were woman raped. Man were raped as well, but compared to woman, raping a man was an act of submission, raping a woman was an act of embarrassed. Most of women raped were never able to get over emotional aspect and have been scarred for their life. And most of them do not talk, not even to their significant others, especially if they met after the war.
I know most of you come to IMDb to decide if you should see this movie or not. If you know next to nothing about foreign policy and don't care to be burdened, it's okay. This movie has a low rating, not because it's bad but because it has been reviewed by some Serbian chauvinist who have taken a special task to slender it. The other votes are from people who are used to being spoon-fed in movie theaters. If you do not know where Yugoslavia is, who Serbs, Bosnian and Croats are, it's OK. It's complicated. But do your own homework, then come and see a movie. One thing I will promise is - you will be moved, disturbed and shaken. The reminder is the work of conscious and empathy.
I work in ICU and deal with human trauma and sickness everyday. And this movie made me cry. Cry for deep hurt inflicted on random people, just because there was no system to protect them from thugs and goons. Thank you Angelina and never mind Serb nationalist and their reviews. They are dime a dozen. All same illiterate and claiming to known the facts, almost laughable bunch, 20 years later they would pillage and rape again, only this time, they can't. But they can state their opinion. It's called democracy. Something Serbs spend decade killing on fields of Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo. With guns or penises. Now they want to be understood before they understand?