**Warning, there are some plot spoilers within. If you don’t want anything ruined, read the first paragraph and then move on.**
Angelina Jolie’s writing/directing debut, a currently untitled romance set during the early days of the Bosnian/Yugoslavian war has gained its first cast member. Croation actor Rade Šerbedžija has joined the film and speaking with Serbian paper Blic he revealed his refusal to take the part and how he was eventually convinced by the the strength of Jolie’s script.
“For almost two months already I have been in contact with Angelina Jolie. She tried to contact me via my agents and they told her that I am not acting in movies on war in former Yugoslavia. I rejected all offers because scenarios were mainly poor and onesided. When she was told why I had rejected her offer, Angelina contacted me by phone and asked me to read the scenario. The text is fantastic,” Šerbedžija said.
Šerbedžija is hardly an unknown or non-actor with plenty of credits to his name, but for most of us, he’s probably best known as “hey, that guy” appearing in films like “Batman Begins,” “Mission: Impossible 2,” “Eyes Wide Shut,” “Snatch,” “Memento” and “EuroTrip.” He will probably be most recognized by fans of “24” for his sixth season appearance as Dmitri Gredenko and he will be in the upcoming final chapter, “Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows” playing Gregorovitch.
But Šerbedžija is particularly excited about this film, describing the movie as a love story set against the backdrop of the chaos of war. And yes, we should warn you, there are spoilers so if you don’t want to know anything else about the plot stop reading here. He describes the film as, “….a love story about a young Serb and a Muslim woman who fell in love several evenings before beginning of war in Bosnia. That’s how film begins. Then follows war madness. The action follows war events with young Muslim woman ending up in a Serbian concentration camp from where she is somehow saved by the young Serb. Their love becomes passionate but impossible.”
In the film Šerbedžija says he playing the, “….father of the main hero, a Serbian patriot. That is a very good character. He is a nationalist, but not a negative character. The story about him is very complex. He is a man with traumas from the WWII whose whole family was killed. He has that tragedy in himself and his nationalism is arising from it.”
The actor goes on to confirm that the film will shoot in Sarajevo and Budapest and stresses that the project will not be anti-Serbian. Šerbedžija adds that Jolie is sensitive to the still raw feelings in the area about the war and clearly, he’s convinced the project won’t just by another “poor and onesided” look at the conflict.
Production is scheduled to begin this fall in Sarajevo and Budapest.