I don’t know why I should say that I’m surprised that this looks good, but I am, and it does. It looks really good, in fact.

Written and directed by Angelina Jolie, In the Land of Blood and Honey centers around “a love affair [that] blooms between a Bosnian woman and a Serbian man during war in the 1990s.” It stars Goran Kostić, Zana Marjanović, and Rade Å erbedžija — the film’s cast is entirely local actors (if you can call the six countries former comprising Yugoslavia “local”).

The film hits screens on December 23, 2011 — which is basically shorthand for, “We think this is an Oscar contender.” There are two versions of the film, which were filmed simultaneously: one in English, and another in the Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian language (or BHS). Undoubtedly, we’ll get the English one here.