VOA标准英语2011--Angelina Jolie Makes Directorial Debut with 'In The Land of Blood and Honey'

Angelina Jolie Makes Directorial Debut¹ with 'In The Land of Blood and Honey'

American movie star Angelina Jolie is making her directorial debut with a film set during Bosnia's civil war in the 1990s. In an exclusive interview with VOA's Bosnian service, Jolie says the message of the film, titled In the Land of Blood and Honey, is one of tolerance² and understanding.

Angelina Jolie is used to being in front of the camera. But for her latest project, the Academy Award-winning actress stepped behind it... and into the brutality³ of wartime Bosnia.

"The more I learned about it and the more I read about it, the more angry I got about the lack of intervention," Jolie says, "the more emotional I was about the violence against women. And I wanted to do a film that would help to look into the relationships between not just a couple, but also sisters, and fathers and sons, and mothers and children."

Jolie wrote as well as directed In the Land of Blood and Honey. It is a love story between a Muslim woman and a Serb man during Bosnia-Herzogovina's bloody⁴, three-year ethnic⁵ conflict.

Jolie says she hopes the film sparks discussion about the war and Bosnia's continued struggle since the 1995 peace agreement.

"I want people to remember Bosnia, and I want them to remember what happened, and I want them to pay respect to all of the people who survived, and today, to remember that this country still has so much healing to do,” she explains.

As a United Nations goodwill⁶ ambassador, the mother of six and partner to Brad Pitt often brings her influence as an actress to global issues. But this time is different.

"This film is the first time that these worlds have collided for me," Jolie says, "so this film means more to me than any film I’ve ever made."

A film festival in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo honored Jolie earlier this year, despite initial criticism from Bosnian sexual violence victims and a lawsuit⁷ alleging⁸ she stole plot pieces from a book.

She credits her Bosnian cast and war victims, organizations and officials she consulted with the result.

"It’s not an American film made about Bosnia. It’s a film made with one American and many Bosnians and many people from the area, and we made it together," she says.

In the Land of Blood and Honey opens in U.S. theaters on December 23. It has two versions: one in English, the other in the Bosnian language.

1 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

2 tolerance   

n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差

参考例句：

• Tolerance is one of his strengths.宽容是他的一个优点。
• Human beings have limited tolerance of noise.人类对噪音的忍耐力有限。

3 brutality   

n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮

参考例句：

• The brutality of the crime has appalled the public. 罪行之残暴使公众大为震惊。
• a general who was infamous for his brutality 因残忍而恶名昭彰的将军

4 bloody   

adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染

参考例句：

• He got a bloody nose in the fight.他在打斗中被打得鼻子流血。
• He is a bloody fool.他是一个十足的笨蛋。

5 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

6 goodwill   

n.善意，亲善，信誉，声誉

参考例句：

• His heart is full of goodwill to all men.他心里对所有人都充满着爱心。
• We paid ￡10,000 for the shop,and ￡2000 for its goodwill.我们用一万英镑买下了这家商店，两千英镑买下了它的信誉。

7 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

8 alleging   

断言，宣称，辩解( allege的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• His reputation was blemished by a newspaper article alleging he'd evaded his taxes. 由于报上一篇文章声称他曾逃税，他的名誉受到损害。
• This our Peeress declined as unnecessary, alleging that her cousin Thornhill's recommendation would be sufficient. 那位贵人不肯，还说不必，只要有她老表唐希尔保荐就够了。