No Man's Land (2001) Rated: Rated R for violence and language. Runtime: 98 mins. Director: Danis Tanovic Writer: Danis Tanovic Cast: Branko Djuric, Rene Bitorajac, Filip Sovagovic....complete cast Genre: Drama/War Memorable quote: Because I have a gun and you don't.
Reel commentary:...an interesting political satire that takes a humorous jab at the United Nations, the French and war in general. It is interesting to see it from the perspective of a non-American group of filmmakers who have indeed created a memorable film that is guaranteed to stick with you.......full review
2002 Academy Award : Best foreign language film - Bosnia
by Frank Wilkins
The fact that No Man’s Land exposes the counterproductive nature of the United Nations as a world policing entity is not really surprising. What is surprising, however, is that No Man’s Land was made in 2001, long before the world had the chance to see, first hand, how the United Nations’ brand of diplomatic bureaucracy failed on such a large scale in Iraq. And don’t think France’s complacent anemia isn’t brought under the microscope as well. It’s a bit unfortunate that my enjoyment of No Man’s Land was due more to its humorous reflection of today’s international political situation than it was due to the merits of the film itself.
No Man’s Land takes place in 1993 in the civil war plagued former Yugoslavia as hostilities between Bosnian and Serbian forces are at their height. Due to an unfortunate set of circumstances, two enemy soldiers find themselves stranded and alone in a booby-trapped battlefield trench in the middle of the ironic beauty of the eastern European countryside. Ciki (Branko Djuric), a Bosnian, is a middle-aged, battle-hardened Alec Baldwin look-alike whose uniform consists of a pair of camouflaged pants and a Rolling Stones t-shirt. Nino (Rene Bitorajac), a Serb, is a young wet-behind-the-ears soldier with little to no battle experience.
Each of the two soldiers is too far from his own respective front lines to make it back safely. While the hate-fueled urge to kill each other never goes unaddressed, they ultimately decide that working together is probably the least lethal means of gaining their safety. Soon things become more complicated as they discover a second Bosnian soldier Cera (Filip Sovagovic), originally believed dead. As Cera awakens from a percussion-induced state of unconsciousness, they alert him to remain still, as a “bouncing betty” type anti-personnel mine is discovered beneath his body – the result of a deadly maneuver by Nino’s superior officer to cause further death as the enemy clears the battlefield of dead bodies. Any movement by the booby-trapped soldier and all three will certainly die.
The situation eventually escalates into an international humanitarian crisis as the press and U.N peacekeepers are alerted to the precarious situation. Director Danis Tanovic brilliantly exploits the absurdity of the hypocritically neutral nature of the U.N. In a wonderful display of dark irony we see the desperation of the deadly dilemma as it contrasts with the almost comical bureaucracy of the military chain-of-command.
No Man’s Land is rated R for graphic war violence and language. Recent releases We Were Soldiers and Black Hawk Down are far more graphic and the language in No Man’s Land is in the subtitles. Is it really bad language when it is written on the screen? Interesting thought anyway.
Tanovic and his fellow Slovenian filmmakers have created an interesting political satire that takes a humorous jab at the United Nations, the French and war in general. Although we are not given enough background with regards to why the two sides are fighting, it is interesting to see it from the perspective of a non-American group of filmmakers who have indeed created a memorable film that is guaranteed to stick with you.
No Man's Land (2001)
