Here's to Angelina!

I caught some friends cheering 'Angie, Angie' at the television the other day. Their excitement was caused by the footage of Angelina Jolie at a Bosnian airport playing out on a local news programme. (You'll forgive me for not noting whether she was coming or going at the time!) I wasn't particularly paying attention so I didn't catch what the story was and I would have forgotten all about it had I not stumbled across this article in The Guardian online this morning.

It's great that the actress otherwise known as Mrs Pitt wants to film her first full directorial debut in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Good news too that it'll provide opportunities for local cast and crew. The attention of a Hollywood A-lister in a country that gets to export little of its culture to the Western world is undoubtedly a welcome thing. The film will tell the tale of a Bosnian woman falling for a Serbian military man. Jolie is quoted as saying, "The film is a love story, not a political statement." But perhaps a story of love that sees past ethnic prejudices is inescapably a statement in a country whose politics so often remains entrenched in them. Statement or not, let's hope it encourages all that is best about Bosnia and Herzegovina.