Angelina Jolie vigorously defended her first film as a writer/director at the Berlin Film Festival on Saturday. While she was greeted with customary applause when she entered a packed news conference auditorium, boos could be heard from some members of the press following the screening of her film, In the Land of Blood and Honey , about the genocidal war in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. And while the film appears to side with Muslim women who were raped and tortured by Christian soldiers during the war, a journalist from Iran -- a Muslim-ruled country -- opened the news conference by accusing Jolie of painting a "black and white" picture of the conflict. Jolie responded that such a judgment was the journalist's, but that had sought to present an accurate account of what had occurred. "I didn't want to point fingers -- maybe at the international community, but other than that, not at anyone else," she said. Another female reporter remarked that she had considered walking out of the movie because of its stark brutality but decided to stay and was glad she did. Jolie acknowledged that she had wrestled with questions about the degree of vicious behavior by the Serbian army she could depict -- she pointed out that the murder of a child is not actually seen but that the audience is left with No Doubt that it has occurred. However, she added, "It should be hard to watch; if I see a war film that's too easy to watch I don't feel comfortable." Jolie said she had devoted two years of her life to making In the Land of Blood and Honey and is now considering a 180-degree turn, saying that she wants to make a movie now that her children will enjoy. "The next thing I'm looking at is a Disney movie," she said. (She has previously said that she is considering the role of Malificent in a live-action version of 101 Dalmatians , a role in which the "black and white" description would be taken for granted.)

13/02/2012