The Pain Angelina Jolie Hid for a Decade: Actress Turns Personal Drama Into New Film

Angelina Jolie’s new film was born out of a deeply personal story and, according to the actress and director herself, is connected to a “very difficult period” in her life.

In Without Blood, which hits theaters on September 18, Salma Hayek Pinault and Demián Bichir play two people who reunite years after a war and the trauma they endured. Jolie told PEOPLE that work on the emotional adaptation of Alessandro Baricco’s 2002 novella of the same name began a full decade ago.

“Someone gave me this book 10 years ago. I was going through a difficult period in my life, and it was one of the few things I had with me in my luggage at the time,” recalls the actress, who is a mother of six.

Baricco’s story is set in the aftermath of a war, and at the time, the book became an unexpected source of inspiration for Jolie.

“I was going through a difficult period, and this book became a way for me to heal. I wrote the screenplay simply so I could spend time with the story and live through it,” explains the Oscar winner.

Jolie never expected to see her screenplay on the big screen. “I never seriously thought the film would actually be made. I wasn’t writing it for the purpose of ever showing it to anyone,” she admits.

Several years later, Jolie was asked whether she had any completed material, but she was not immediately ready to take the director’s chair herself.

“I knew it would be very difficult to approach this story, and it’s not an easy film. And I couldn’t have made it without extraordinary actors,” she says.

One of those actors was Salma Hayek Pinault. The actress agreed to join the project after learning that Jolie would be directing it.

Hayek calls Jolie “an amazing director, but also a friend.” According to Hayek, the conversations they had while working through the nuances of Without Blood were “wonderful.”

“I love the way she thinks, and I understand her. So when you know that someone understands you, you feel safe and you can be yourself under any circumstances,” says the 60-year-old Hayek.

At the center of Without Blood are Nina, played by Hayek, and Tito, portrayed by Bichir. They are brought together by an act of violence that took place many years earlier and attempt to come to terms with its devastating consequences.

According to Jolie, experiencing conflict can permanently change the course of a person’s life.

“Conflict changes the course of your life. We return to the place where we broke and find ourselves in this endless cycle. The better we understand this within ourselves as human beings, the more opportunities we have to change, correct our path or try to understand exactly where we need answers,” Jolie said.

The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2024. Without Blood opens in theaters nationwide on September 18.