Transnational celebrity activism in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Local responses to Angelina Jolie’s film In the Land of Blood and Honey

Abstract

This article focuses on the local understandings, responses and interpretations of celebrity activist Angelina Jolie and the film she directed in 2011 about the war rapes in Bosnia and Herzegovina: In the land of Blood and Honey. We first provide a brief historical context of the production and promotion of the film. Next, we offer a theoretical approach to the phenomenon of celebrity activism. In the third part, we look at how Jolie's film has been received and interpreted in the region itself, since Jolie's stated goal was to 'raise awareness about war rapes'. On the basis of in-depth interviews with Bosnian public intellectuals, we argue that the film's story of war rapes and suffering did little to raise awareness about war rape victims generally and was interpreted primarily within two discursive frameworks: celebrity and ethnonationalistic ones that tend to reinforce the status quo in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina and perpetuate misunderstandings about war crimes. Jolie's activism, in other words, did not contribute to the reconciliation between different ethnicities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but has, on the contrary, further fostered polarization that continues to plague the region.

UN celebrity ‘It’ girls as public relations-ised humanitarianism

“…Media frames also define social problems and their potential solutions in ways that influence public opinion (Entman, 1993; Kogen, 2015; Severin and Tankard, 1997; Tuchman, 1978). Although much important work has already been done on the intertwining of celebrity and politics (Louw, 2010; Repo and Yrjola, 2011; Street, 2004; Volcic and Erjavec, 2015; Yrjola, 2011), there has been relatively little framing analysis of how this occurs through the selection and arrangement of textual features in women's magazines. The increasing visibility of UN Women celebrity ambassadors, including Emma Watson in the 2014 HeForShe campaign and Nicole Kidman in the 2016 FaceItTogether campaign, across digital and print media, suggests this is an important and timely topic.…”

“…Yet, as Scott (2011) and Finlay (2011) point out, there is no democratic mechanism for the well-intended celebrity ambassador to be dismissed by the oppressed poor she supposedly represents. As Volcic and Erjavec (2015: 262) put it, the celebrity ambassador may appear to represent a ‘post-democratic order’ of ‘post-political politics’.…”

“…Kidman is praised in the Marie Claire (Australia) article as ‘a voice of compassion’ (Cooney-Carrillo, 2016: 111), who has ‘lead with her heart’ (Cooney-Carrillo, 2016: 112), reflecting the now common trend in celebrity diplomacy of delivering emotional language (and women's emotional labour) as part of the ‘domestication’ of the UN mission (see Chouliaraki, 2012; Volcic and Erjavec, 2015; Wheeler, 2011). The strategic framing of celebrity activists as emotional diplomats also reinforces the traditional stereotype of women as the emotional sex and the embodiment of domesticity.…”

“…In their innovative analysis of both interpretations of and responses to Angelina Jolie and her film In the Land of Blood and Honey , Volcic and Erjavec (2015: 359) observe that while the Hollywood sex symbol has transformed her image through the role of UN celebrity ambassador, ‘her work is ultimately a part of a politics of entertainment’, which reinforces the status quo: ‘Despite all their apparent freedom and cultural power, even Hollywood celebrities find their hands tied by their own commitments and the dictates of the commercial cultural in which they operate’ (Volcic and Erjavec, 2015: 373). Currently, that commercial popular culture, particularly in women's magazines and entertainment publicity, is suffused with a heady mix of heterosexual power couples, liberal feminism, celebrity motherhood and celebrity activism (see Beckham, 2016; Cooney-Carrillo, 2016; Giovanni, 2015; Rafanelli, 2017).…”

“…The pull quote extracted from the article and set in capitals and large type reads: ‘In reference to the many female refugees she meets she says: “I don't know why this is my life and that's hers”’. Although this is an opportunity for Jolie to voice her famous empathy for refugees in the Global South (see Chouliaraki, 2012; Volcic and Erjavec, 2015; Wheeler, 2011), it is also a lost opportunity to explain the historical, imperial and colonial conditions that construct unequal life choices and chances for women around the world. It also skirts around the more controversial and timely question of Western treatment of refugees.…”