Actress questions Bosnia’s withdrawal of movie permit

But the actress, and two members of her film crew in Sarajevo, declined to say what the plot of her directorial debut will be, and that could make it difficult to allay the concerns of the movie’s main opponents: Bosnia’s wartime rape victims.

Jolie said in a written statement that it will be a shame if “unfair pressure based on wrong information’’ prevents her crew from shooting her film in Bosnia.’’ Its working title is “Untitled Love Story.’’

She offered to meet with wartime rape victims in Bosnia and to clarify misunderstandings that led Sarajevo’s culture minister, Gavrilo Grahovac, to deny the permit.

“My hope is that people will hold judgment until they have seen the film,’’ Jolie said.

The movie was supposed to be shot partly in Bosnia in November, but Grahovac revoked the permit this week under pressure from the Association of Women, Victims of War, which represents the several thousand mainly Muslim Bosniak women who were raped during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war.

Grahovac was not available for comment yesterday.

Sarajevan Fedja Stukan, who plans to act in the movie, defended Jolie’s project, telling Bosnian media that “we are not making a movie about a crazy woman falling in love with her rapist. We are not sick and perverted.’’

Jolie’s Sarajevo producer, Edin Sarkic, said yesterday that the rumor about the rape victim falling in love with a rapist is insane.

Sarkic said he resubmitted the movie permit application to Grahovac on Wednesday, along with a full script, and expects the minister to grant a new permit.

Bakira Hasecic, the leader of the Association of Women, Victims of War, said she has not read the script.

But “from what I heard, it is about a victim in a rape camp falling in love with her rapist, and that’s not only impossible but the idea is insulting,’’ she said.

She said, “We, the victims, do not want to be portrayed that way and we complained.’’

In the immediate aftermath of the war, the issue of mass rape during the conflict was taboo.

But the victims then came forward and formed the association that fights for their rights in the courts and defends their dignity in public.

The lobby has grown so strong that rarely any official in Bosnia dares to confront it.

In her statement, Jolie said: “The choice to make a film about this area and set in this time in history was also to remind people of what happened not so long ago and to give attention to the survivors of the war.’’