#58 No Man's Land

The Bosnia and Herzegovina civil war serves as the backdrop for No Man's Land - and the film is easily one of the best of 2001. Writer/director Danis Tanovic has created a movie that combines sharp satire with a powerful, even-handed look at a war that has no clear victors, only victims.

The film opens with a Bosnian army relief patrol attempting to get through a dense fog at nighttime, unaware of where they are or who might be out there waiting for them. Since they can barely see two feet in front of them, they decide to stop for the night. The following morning, the fog lifts and Serbs ambush them. The patrol is wiped out with the exception of one soldier, Ciki (Branko Djuric). Wounded and alone, Ciki manages to find cover by stumbling into a nearby trench.

The Serbs send out a two-man patrol to investigate. When the shooting subsides, Ciki finds himself face-to-face with Nino (Rene Bitorajac), a wounded Serb soldier. The two verbally spar back and forth for a while venting their hostility and hatred on each other until they realize that another man, a Muslim who survived the ambush, is alive. The facts that he is laying on an active spring mine that will kill all three of them if he is moved further complicate the situation. Before long, both the United Nations peacekeeping forces and the foreign press become involved in the matter, escalating a small skirmish into an international political and media event.

With a deft directorial hand to match his strong script, Tanovic gets his points across loud and clear. He puts us right in the trench with Ciki and Nino; experiencing their desperation and anger while the tension of the situation rises to unbearable levels. But even in the darkest of scenarios, there is room for humor. The satire is reminiscent of Robert Altman's M*A*S*H and David O. Russell's Three Kings in that even in the darkest of situations, humor does indeed exist. In this film, the satirical targets are the incompetence of military officials and the foreign press' heartless quest for ratings domination. Easy targets to be sure, but Tanovic knows how to deliver the material well enough for us to overlook that.

No Man's Land doesn't offer any easy answers nor does it place the blame of the Bosnia and Herzegovina civil war on one particular side. Like the best films of the genre, this is a story that could have taken place in any war at any time and still been potent. Perhaps Danis Tanovic's years of first hand experience as a front-line cameraman for the Bosnian army has given him a unique perspective. Or perhaps we are lucky enough to just be witnessing a major new filmmaking talent emerging onto the cinema world. Either way, No Man's Land is a movie that you will not soon forget...