A test for love?

Rating: 9/10 (24 January 2012)

It is admirable that Jolie, an American Hollywood actress who was only seventeen years old when the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina broke out, gives the voice to the voiceless. Jolie, as an insider, tells the story of Ajla and Danijel; two young people from Sarajevo who started dating only days before the war broke out. Those were the days when it did not matter who is of what ethnic origin. Ajla; as Zana Marjanovic and Goran Kostic; as Daniel, are brilliant in their roles. Their chemistry is beautiful and their love complicated by political circumstances in which they suddenly find themselves. Ajla is a young painter and a (grand)daughter of lefties-"partizans"; as such she was oblivious to religion. Danijel, who was a police officer before the war is under the influence of his father. His father remembers his parents being killed in World War Two and for him, the Muslims should take the blame. The movie depicts scenes of shelling and sniping of Sarajevo, it shows the scenes from Grbavica and how women were separated from men and taken to Serb run concentration camps. Jolie takes time to tell a heartbreaking story of women in war. She gives voice to the voiceless-all those who were victims of rape and sexual violence in this conflict. The movie is difficult to watch at the times, but it is indeed an important movie to see. It is a very complicated love story; it is about social realities, it is about politics, family and social relationships and more importantly, it is about trust. Can love their stand it?