No Man's Land

Released 2001
Stars Branko Djuric, Rene Bitorajac, Filip Sovagovic, Georges Siatidis, Serge-Henri Valcke, Simon Callow, Katrin Cartlidge
Directed by Danis Tanovic
Reviewed May 15, 2002

"No Man's Land" opens with a Bosnian relief patrol getting lost in the night fog. In the morning the fog lifts, and the patrol realizes they wandered too near the Serbian front. As soon as they realize this, the Serbs open fire and slaughter the patrol, but one member is blown into a trench and survives. The trench is in between the front lines drawn by the Serbs and the Bosnians, inaccessible by either side but well within each other's gunsights. It's truly a no man's land. Shortly after the shooting, two Serbs are able to creep into the trench to see if there are any survivors, and this sets up a see-saw battle for control between two wounded soldiers. To complicate things they have to contend with a third soldier who's lying on top of a mine and can't be moved.

This movie is much different (and better) than I expected. It was a favorite at Cannes and won the 2002 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, but the cover art made it look like a heart-warming story where two soldiers from opposite sides learn to view each other as people instead of hated enemies. Wrong. It's a darkly satirical story that has a lot of anger for everyone involved. The movie tries to be fair, but it's definitely sympathetic to the Bosnians. I wasn't surprised to see director/writer Danis Tanovic was Bosnian and spent time with the Bosnian army, but I think he was pretty fair for a person from that background.

Tanovic issues most of his venom on the United Nations, which had set up a humanitarian aid effort but refused to intervene militarily. But what can you expect from an organization that's run by politicians--especially a body of politicians that represent every single country in the world. When you have a quagmire like the Balkans, you're almost guaranteed to have enough countries on each side of the conflict to paralyze the U.N. I found it interesting that the film argued the same point that Muslims around the world have argued; that the U.N. actually took the Serbian side by not taking action in the conflict. This is a little confusing until you look at the details. The U.N. imposed an arms embargo on the region, which hurt the Bosnian Muslims the most since their side was under-armed. Muslims blamed the U.S. (of course) and the U.N. for not allowing them to fight back, but I do remember NATO bombing the Serbs in support of the Muslims. I also remember NATO and the U.N. forcing an eventual cease-fire. By no means am I an expert on the region, but the long-term solution doesn't seem to be more arms and more war against civilians. I like the idea of the cease-fire and peace talks better, but maybe I'm naive.

The main point of the film is to highlight the hatred and mistrust that exists between the Serbs and Bosnians (I think it's the Bosnians, but it may actually be the Croats). This hatred is so old, I don't know how it will ever go away. It makes me realize how the U.S.S.R. actually accomplished some positive things. Despite being an evil empire that oppressed millions of people and threatened the entire world with nuclear holocaust, they did bring stability to several regions in Eastern Europe that had warred on and off for centuries. For two generations, those people weren't allowed to fight each other, and you'd think that would be enough time for some of the old grudges to mellow. Once the U.S.S.R. dissolved, however, Georgia, Chechnya, and the Balkans fell into war. These people just hate each other, and Tanovic wants to make this hatred palpable. At first the confrontation in the trench is impersonal; they're just two opposing soldiers with a shared general animosity. They each have chances to kill the other, but they don't act on those chances. Once Chiki shoots Nino in the leg, however, it becomes deeply personal, and Nino must have revenge. This starts the chain reaction between the men that can't be stopped, and it's an allegory for the two countries who simply cannot break the cycle of revenge.

I really liked the way the story toyed with the viewer. It led us in one direction and then another before jolting us back to the grim reality of the situation. It's a dark story that left me with the same hopeless feeling I always have after watching a movie about Bosnia (see Beautiful People, Savior, and Before the Rain). The two countries are like poor Cera, who's left lying on the land mine. They're in a state where they can't move without blowing themselves up.

Reviewed by Bill Alward Home
 

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