Angelina Jolie's new film - a love story set against the genocide of the war in Bosnia - is to be shown in Sarajevo for the first time but it already has touched off anger left over from the conflict.

Muslims in Bosnia have said they expect In The Land Of Blood And Honey to focus on their plight during the 1992-1995 war. But the distributor in the Serb part of Bosnia said he will not show it there because it portrays Serbs as the villains and they would not put up with that.

The screening, which Angelina plans to attend, will tell a fictional story about a romance that develops between a Bosnian Serb man and a Bosnian Muslim woman, and what happens when he becomes an army officer and she is held in a military prison camp where atrocities such as rape occur.

About 5,000 people are expected at the debut in Sarajevo and the movie also will be shown in theatres in the Bosniak-Croat part of the country.

But the sole film distributor in the Serb-run part of Bosnia said Serbs do not want to see the film. Vladimir Ljevar said In The Land Of Blood And Honey will not be shown in Bosnian Serb movie theatres.

"There is simply no interest for this movie here, so I can't sell any tickets. The fact that the Serbs are the bad guys in it is the reason why there is no interest. The film is lousy. I watched it. It has had bad reviews. It is unprofitable," he said.

Thousands of women were raped during Bosnia's war, which included the notorious Srebrenica massacre in July 1995 and the 44-month siege of the capital, Sarajevo.