No Man's Land
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Movie Reviews of No Man's Land
Movie Review: Hilarious and unsettling
Summary: 5 Stars
Summary:A group of Bosnian soldiers are trying to reach their lines as reinforcements but get lost in the fog. When they wake up in the morning they find that they are almost on top of the Serbian line. They realize this too late and most of the soldiers are killed. Two nearly make it to safety when a shell explodes and knocks them unconscious. One of the soldiers, Chiki (Branko Djuric (I)), wakes up with a wound in his shoulder. He finds himself in a trench that makes up the middle of the battlefield between the two armies (thus the title). Not daring to risk going to the Serbian line in daylight he explores the trench. Meanwhile, the Serbians have decided to send a couple of soldiers to the trench to see if anyone survived. They send down a green soldier, Nino (Rene Bitorajac) and an older soldier (Mustafa Nadarevic). The two Bosnians find the other soldier hit by the shell, Cera (Filip Sovagovic) and, thinking him dead, booby trap his body with a mine underneath it. Eventually Chiki kills the older soldier and he and Nino are in something of a standoff until they realize that Cera is actually alive and now booby-trapped. Needing help, they signal for assistance (quite humorous in itself) and eventually the UN comes to their aid, well, sort of. You'll have to watch the movie to see what happens because it is a remarkable film.
My Comments:
Superb! The premise is outstanding and the ending is even more stunning. I absolutely loved the film. Almost the whole movie takes place in one, very small location and is really the interplay between two actors. But what is even more brilliant is the not-so-subtle political commentary on two fronts: the futility of war and the often wasted efforts of the UN. Don't get me wrong, I think the UN is wonderful organization with noble goals. But peacekeepers in wars is pretty ridiculous if you ask me. Of course, I also think war is pretty ridiculous, but this is no place for me to spout my philosophy. Anyway, the movie is great. It is English subtitled; the actors speak some English, French, Czech, German, etc. A remarkable film and a must see.
Movie Review: The Slavian Catch-22
Summary: 5 Stars
Here we have Catch-22 updated replacing the island of Pianosa and WWII with a trench in No-man's Land between the Bosnian and Serb front lines in the Bosnian War. Tanovic's rendering of an intricate story-line is powerful and told with biting, subtle, and satirical black humor. Tanovic comes across as an insider and a witness (which no doubt he was) to the pointless atrocities and dirty warfare that the real world break-up of Yugoslavia and successive Serbian wars created.Some of the films funnier moments prove Tanovic's insight into the UN, world media, and the pointlessness of the war. When a German Explosive Ordnance Expert is to show up, the French UN members wonder where he is. They watch the clock, say he is supposed to show at 3:30 and sure enough when the clock rolls to the half hour, the German promptly drives up. Both the Bosnian and Serbian Field commanders put in calls to UNPROFOR to resolve a situation when two half-naked people parade around No Man's Land waving white flags.
The plot line basics have been well-covered by other reviewers, so I will move to my observations. The reason this movie garners such well-deserved praise is that it very artfully and entertainingly drives home a powerful message and agenda that has topical implications to ongoing world events. It questions the function of the United Nations engagement in simply a "sidelines" non-interventionist humanitarian role when atrocities of war are ongoing. It reinforces the wastefulness of war. It highlights the international media's crucial but sometimes manipulative role in modern war coverage. But most of all, it tells a story we care about...a story that matters.
And as we are asked these days to draw lines in the sand, the French Sergeant Marshand words ring true, "You can't be neutral facing murder. Doing nothing to stop it is taking sides." Though as politically charged as that statement is and this movie implies, the movie never preaches. The message is in the art and as bitingly sharp as Joseph Heller's Catch-22 was in its day. This is a great and relevant war movie for these times and all times.
Movie Review: This was UNPROFOR
Summary: 5 Stars
I can tell you that this movie, more than anything else I have seen, captures the banal stupidity, bureaucracy, inadequacy and futility of UNPROFOR to a degree approaching the actual circumstances. It is a brilliant movie, well deserving the awards it earned. To me, its strength is its accuracy to the conditions at the time. Everything in this movie, no matter how silly or how stereotypical, is perfectly believeable. It really shows just how impossible the whole business was at the time. The French sergeant is not just some character--I have known many men essentially identical to him--and he shows the really decent and human side of the poor souls who are sent into missions such as these. As an aside, I was pleased to see a Frenchman in a sympathetic role; this is also in keeping with my own experience in Bosnia and elsewhere.I am pleased and impressed that the film does not portray the Serbs and Bosniacs as bad-guys or good-guys based on nationality. It correctly portrays individuals, with both Armiies essentially operating in a similar way. The Croats are not mentioned in this story, but on the individual level it would be similar.
Bottom line is that this is the best dramatic film I have seen on the subject of UNPROFOR. Please know that the truth was actually even worse. This is not meant as a criticism of the individual soldiers, of all nationalities who served with UNPROFOR. It is meant as a criticism of the terms of reference for the mission. These were a disgrace to the civilised world, and I am glad that IFOR was able to make amends for it, at least with respect to those poor souls in BiH who were still alive when we took over from UNPROFOR.
The total failure of the West to solve the movie's central dramatic problem of the Bosniac soldier on the mine seems to me a metaphor for the strategic failure of UNPROFOR. It took IFOR (NATO) to end this war for good. And this is why every Bosniac (and even many Serbs) I talk with are keen to keep the present SFOR in Bosnia for the foreseeable future.
Movie Review: One of the best anti-war movies ever
Summary: 5 Stars
If you're looking for a hero war movie, like "wave the flag" type ones and so on, you won't like this movie. It does not contain screaming rednecks with M16 riffles, no action scenes, no military gadgets are used (except one murderous bouncing mine) nothing for the couch warrior, nothing for the weaposn addict, nothing for budweiser and BBQ steak consumers. If you're a marines or seals fan, your IQ is probably (with some exceptions) not high enough to enjoy this movie.This movie is about how stupid war can be, how mean the circumstances can be, how stupid the people in charge can be. There is nothing cool in wars. The heroes are loosers even though they may become successful businessmen and women after the war. Unless a nation defends it's own territory, there is no reason to participate in a war. The absurdity of war is reflected by this movie better than many movies before. If you are a war fan and have the patience to watch this movie to the end and understand it, you will probably change your mind.
The serbian/croatian/bosnian conflict destroyed one of the main centres of European culture, that was Sarajevo. One of the actors in this movie, Branko Djuric, was one of the members of the comedy group "Toplista Nadrealista" that was one of the best political comedy shows I ever saw in my life. Emir Kusturica, one of the most acclaimed independent directors in the business, was also working in Sarajevo. Not to mention the multitude of rock and pop bands emerging from Sarajevo. Yougoslavia was a country that had 4 (no other country on earth had that many) centers of major culture: Belgrade, Ljublijana, Sarajevo and Zagreb. The artists colaborated and there were huge synergy flows between the 4 cities. The war ended that. At this time, the region (there is no real YU anymore) is licking its wouds and tries to recover. However it will take a long time until the hate (that is so perfectly reproduced in the movie) will go away and the artists will find the way to each other again.
Movie Review: NO MAN'S LAND is intensely mind-probing and disturbing
Summary: 5 Stars
A most deserving winner of the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Film, No Man's Land boasts a script that is complex and disturbing and unflinchingly honest. Danis Tanovic is the genius behind the understated film that examines the role of U.N in the Bosnia-Serbia skirmish with dark and sardonic satire. It tells of a Bosnia-relief group attacked and mired at the frontline. Chiki (Branko Djuric) and Cera (Filip Savogoric) are the sole survivor but even that their fate is undecidedly perilous when a vicious Serb soldier accompanies novice Nino (Rene Bitorajac) to plant a bomb under Cera. It is detonated by pressure-release. Cera is immobilized and Chiki is reluctant to leave him. Nino is held hostage. U.N. sergeant Marchand (George Statdis) cannot bear to watch further - he decides to engage his men to relief the situation.No Man's Land may deceptively be high-brow and slow-moving but the impact of the film comes out only after the movie which engages you to reflect. It is seethingly savage in reflecting the paradox of war and offers refreshing insight in the intervention of U.N. Compassion is helpless in extinguishing the mindless hatred between Bosnia and Serbs; one wonders when can U.N be ever neutral in a war. Reporters are news-ravenous and profits from their misery. The difference in culture further extracts the U.N from really interacting with both sides. What's most memorable is the cross-fire between Nino and Chiki in deciding who started the war. Questioning slowly becomes an intimidation to make each other admit that they are at fault.
No Man's Land is highly original and even more outstanding for the fine performances from the cast. It is hauntingly disturbing especially in its climax and simplifies the situation without compromising on the material. Unlike most war-film that examines the brutalities, No Man's Land is a brutal dissection of the rationale of intervention and its limitations.