Following the great reception to Angelina Jolie’s portrayal of opera singer Maria Callas in Pablo Larraín’s Maria, the humanitarian filmmaker has had an impressive festival season. Now Jolie’s new directorial work, Without Blood, has made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. The film is an adaptation of Alessandro Baricco’s novel bearing the same name, and the author has been directly involved with the production of the film, per Deadline.

Without Blood is a war film set in an undisclosed location, following a woman who confronts the murderer of her father and brother in an attempt to seek closure. Salma Hayek and Demián Bichir start as the woman and murderer respectively. The setting is left intentionally vague, a cinematic choice emphasized to Jolie by Baricco: “They’re going to force you to change the end, they’re going to force you to pick a country, they’re going to force you to decide what year it is. Try to hold, because this is what it’s intended to be.” Despite these strict parameters, the author emphasized Jolie’s deftness in adapting his novel, “of which she is an intelligent and passionate reader.” Alessandro Barrico visited the set “in the middle of nowhere” and “saw for the first time the characters I had imagined come to life… The beauty of the film preserves much of what is so special about her (Jolie).”

Jolie was presented the TIFF Tribute Award for Impact Media before Without Blood‘s screening, for which she gave a speech. In keeping with Jolie’s humanitarian cause, the film’s focus is on understanding war rather than giving in to it. This subversion of military ideals creates a conflict of “Who’s wrong? Who’s right? This idea that there’s some absolute and how important that is.” as stated by Jolie. She ended her speech with the simple claim “I just hope there’s more conversation, and that’s really it.”