Well, it looks like the Oscar race just got a major shakeup. Though it was slated for a release date in December way back in the spring, Angelina Jolie‘s upcoming directorial debut “In The Land Of Blood And Honey” has been a completely unknown element. With no festival appearances, and a lack of stills and promotional material, it was left up to speculation if the film was a misguided vanity project, a true awards season contender or something else entirely. Well, a very meaty trailer has now landed online and Jolie looks to have delivered something that could change up the game this fall.
The film, which has already courted controversy, stars Zana Marjanović (”Snow”), Rade Šerbedžija (”Snatch”) and Goran Kostic (”Taken”) in a romantic drama about the troubled relationship between a Muslim woman and a Serbian man in the midst of the Bosnian war. The spot shows that Jolie isn’t shying away from the grittier elements of the war, and the love story plays out against that backdrop with the leads questioning their own emotional motivations and trust. “The film is specific to the Bosnian War, but it’s also universal,” Jolie said earlier this year. “I wanted to tell a story of how human relationships and behavior are deeply affected by living inside a war.”
All in all, it looks quite handsomely put together, and displays a very strong directorial hand, with some good performances to boot so consider us very pleasantly surprised. FilmDistrict will release the film into theaters on December 23rd. Watch below.
