Berlin Film Festival: Angelina Jolie's In the Land of Blood and Honey, review The earnest "save the world" sentiments of many of the Hollywood A-list are easily mocked, either as the manifestation of some sort of God complex or as a cynical PR gesture. Yet it would be churlish to doubt the good intentions of Angelina Jolie's uncompromising if turgid Balkan war film In the Land of Blood and Honey - the Oscar winner's feature debut as writer-director. Eschewing the extensive roster of Hollywood stars that must fill her address book, Jolie has chosen to tell this story with a predominantly Balkan cast and crew, even filming a version in the local languages. Combine this gloss-free production with the frank depiction of tough subject matter (frequent scenes of mass execution, rape and child murder) and you have to, at the very least, applaud her resolve to tell this story in such an uncommercial way. The movie certainly isn't in want of grit as we bear witness to shocking scenes built to remind us of ethnic cleansing that took place in Europe less than two decades ago. As a device to show how the conflict split apart once peaceful communities, the story is structured around forbidden love between the soldier son of a Serb general, Danijel (Goran Kostic), and a beautiful Bosnian artist, Ajla (Zana Marjanovic), whose free-spirited peacetime fling develops into a mutually destructive wartime romance that asks moral questions of them both. Never less than competent, it's clearly the result of a sincere, long-harboured desire to raise awareness of these horrific, dehumanising events. It is frequently said that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it and, with that in mind, it's an almost entirely noble endeavour. The film's treatment of Serb characters - most of whom are portrayed as monsters beyond redemption - has already proved controversial and divisive for many in the Balkans as they look to move on from the past.