Farrell Upset at War Devastation

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Irish Voice Entertainment

Farrell Upset at War Devastation

April 9, 2008

By Debbie McGoldrick

IN preparation for an upcoming film role, Colin Farrell toured Bosnia last weekend, and though he wasn’t greeted by sniper fire (sorry, Hillary!) the Irish actor was nonetheless “sickened” by some of the scenes he witnessed.

Farrell will play a war photographer on assignment during the Bosnian war from 1992-’95 in a film called Triage, which will start filming in Spain this month before moving on to Ireland. Going to the scene of so many horrific crimes – one of the towns he visited was home to 8,000 Muslim men and boys who were killed by Bosnian Serb forces in 1995 – was an eye-opening experience, Farrell says.

“I felt sick,” Farrell told Reuters after visiting the cemetery for the victims of the massacre, regarded as Europe’s worst atrocity since World War II.

“It is hard to describe how obviously the air and the land has been poisoned by the act of killing 8,000 people in the space of a day. But you really do get the sense of the pain and the loss and I am sad, I really am sad.”

Triage is based on a book by Scott Anderson, an American reporter, and will be directed by Bosnian filmmaker Danis Tanovic, who won an Oscar in 2001 for best foreign language film. (He also recently formed a political party in an effort to provide different economic and political opportunities to his fellow citizens.)

“I am playing a war photographer who has been covering wars for 12 years or so and something takes place in the film that closes the distance between himself and what he does,” Farrell said.

“It is a funny journey into himself and the far-reaching effect of the war back at home.”

It seems Colin is more than ready to take on such serious roles, given that his personal life is more stable than ever.

“I’m 31 and I’m a father and I just want a little bit of peace. I haven’t been in a glossy magazine for about two years, and even before when I was acting the malarkey, I was never really one for being in clubs and all that stuff,” Farrell said in the U.K. last week, where he was doing press to promote the release of In Bruges, his low-budget feature that was released here last month.

“I much preferred to do my damage in dingy bars,” he said.

Now his family, particularly son James, 4, who was born with a rare disorder called Angelman Syndrome, mean more than a night out.

“I’ve got a son and friends and family that I adore and it’s a different chapter. Some of the best things that happen to you in life are unplanned, and that was what my son was. He’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”

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