Angelina Jolie picks Bosnian actress for lead role in her directorial debut

Angelina Jolie picks Bosnian actress for lead role

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — Angelina Jolie has chosen young Bosnian actress Zana Marjanovic for the lead role in her directorial debut — a wartime love story between a Bosnian woman and a Serbian man.

Marjanovic told the Associated Press on Thursday that the screenplay was “fabulous” and she could not wait to start shooting with such a “great actress and humanist” like Jolie.

The 27-year-old actress said she was on her way to Hungary to prepare for the film shoot beginning later this year and take place both in Hungary and Bosnia.

Jolie has visited Bosnia twice this year — as UNHCR good will ambassador and to scout for her movie — and had promised she would cast only actors from the region. Marjanovic became known after her prominent role in award winning “Snow” by Bosnian director Aida Begic.