Angelina Jolie's Bosnian War Movie Gets Green Light

Bosnia expected to issue permit despite film's controversial subject matter.

ByABC News
October 17, 2010, 1:51 PM

BELGRADE, Serbia, Oct. 17, 2010— -- A Bosnian "Romeo and Juliette," war, romance, trouble -- Angelina Jolie's directorial debut movie, which had seemed to be in political trouble, is expected to get a new permit to film in Bosnia after officials revoked the initial one over concerns about the script, a local producer told ABCNews.com today.

"We were promised by the Ministry of Culture that the permit will be issued on Monday. It was supposed to be done on Friday, but now it is sure to happen on Monday," Edin Sarkic, director of Scout, the Bosnian production house working on the movie said.

Jolie is expected to arrive in Bosnia in late November to begin filming the movie, Sarkic said.

The movie currently only has the working title, "Untitled Love Story," Scout production unit manager Ensar Halilovic said.

Although no celebrity has done more to to try to soothe the wounds in the Balkans, Angelina Jolie found herself in the difficult position of reopening those wounds with her new project, which is set against the backdrop of Bosnian war.

Jolie is writing, directing and producing the film, which features a local cast but not the actress herself. The movie has begun shooting in Hungary and is set to move its cameras to Sarajevo and outskirts of Zenica in November.

But after word began to circulate that the film would depict not only the rape of a Bosnian Muslim woman by a Serb but also a romance between the two, a backlash erupted.

Bakira Hasecic, a rape victim and president of the Women Victims of War Association in Sarajevo, lodged a protest with the minister of culture, objecting to the romantic plotline.

The ministry then realized that it had not gotten a copy of the movie script, as is required by Bosnian law, but only a synopsis of the plot, and it revoked the shooting permit. It is currently examining whether Jolie's production will be allowed to shoot in Bosnia.