No Man's Land

Rating:
Summary: 100 % Truth
Review: This movie is really real to what really happend in war in Bosnia. This movie is not on Bosnian side like most of them are. Great movie that many people should see.

Rating:
Summary: Once you see this movie it will stay with you forever
Review: Sometimes the best movies are crafted from simple concepts, leaving the screenwriter and filmmakers a much larger canvas to work with to create a film with a story which is both enriching and emotionally rewarding for its audience. NO MAN'S LAND is one such film. Winner of the 2002 Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film, and the recipient of a Jury Prize at Cannes, NO MAN'S LAND is a movie which manages to cleverly send up the bleakness of war while letting the black humor complement the film as opposed to lessening its impact.
This Bosnian film, written and directed by Danis Tanovic; centres around Ciki, a Bosnian troop who is wounded by enemy fire and seeks refuge in a nearby trench only to find himself trapped with one of his wounded comrades ... and one of his Serbian enemies. What makes a bad situation worse is that Ciki's ally is caught on a spring loaded bomb which wil detonate if he moves, killing all three of them, so the only option that offers hope for the trio's survival is for Ciki to trust his enemy while he goes and gets UN assistance for his friend.
It sounds like from here the film will be a huge bore: two enemy troops stuck in a trench relying on trust for survival. If this were a RAMBO movie Sly would have just contorted his facial muscles, grunted and pumped the sucker full of shells, screaming while his pecs quivered with a life of their own. But NO MAN'S LAND is more cerebral, and one of the best movies I've seen so far this year. The visual design of the movie is superb, with believable performances and a plausible yet acerbically witty script. A definate must see. For people who would avoid NO MAN'S LAND on the basis that the movie is subtitled, now's probably a good time to expand your viewing horizons a little and give this a try. I give you my 100% guarantee you won't regret it.

Rating:
Summary: A Small Movie With a Big Punch
Review: Obviously, you don't need to have a big budget to make a good movie, as No Man's Land has proven. The story-line is simple enough, a Bosnian & a Serb is trapped in a trench. One of their fallen comrades needs to be rescued & yet, it can't be done simply as he's lying on a landmine. During their free-hours, the enemies try to reason who's at fault for starting the war at the first place; & how can we not laugh when one of the Bosnian Commander feels disgusted with the genocide happening in Rwanda as he read it from the newspaper whilst genocide is happening right at his own backyard. United Nation is portrayed as a huge bureaucratic blunder. Its intention is genuine & meant well but then again, it remains ineffective for resolving the conflicts in the region. In the end, everybody is a loser. We have been told many times before about the senselessness of war & yet, United States has just finished its war with Iraq & shifting its attention to Syria. We simply don't learn from history, I take it. An uneasy & unsettling movie to sit through despite its hillarious moment. Highly recommended & definitely deserving its Oscars.

Rating:
Summary: The Slavian Catch-22
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Funny and thought provoking at the same time
Review: It is the funny side of war, if war has anything funny about it, yet in the end it leaves you pondering some things. For example: hate, sorrow, the duty to your country and the duty to your fellow man. It's got a couple of absurdities but that's exactly what makes it comic. There's a point where the bosnian soldier tells the serb soldier about a girl he slept with and he describes her and it turns out that the other one went to school with her. The way they talk about it would make you think they're aquaintances of old talking about common friends. That's my favourite part. I couldn't stop laughing. Then you have the third charater lying on a mine and afraid to move, yet spitting sarcastic remarks every chance he gets. I guess that lying on a mine, ready to explode if you move, gives you a rather good insight into bitternes. Do watch it. The place it was filmed in is beautiful, even if it's scarred by war. So if by now you feel confused, watch the movie, then you'll know what I mean. I'm sure this helped.

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious and unsettling
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: The film will keep you thinking long after the end...
Review: Each time I see this movie, it gets better and better. The first time I've seen it, the ending left me quite unsatisfied. I wasn't expecting the unconventional ending, so my opinion of the movie wasn't too positively enthusiastic. When I watched it another time, I was aware of the storyline and my observance of the details and circustances was better this time around. By the end of the second viewing, I fell in love with the film. Since then, I've watched it twice more. The story tells it like it is- not from a foreign point of view, but from the point of view of a Bosnian director who lived through the conflict. The only dissapointment was the poor translation of the Bosnian language in the subtitles. Nevertheless, the film is truly beautiful.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome movie
Review: A very interesting movie - story about a Serb solodier and two Bosnian soldiers trapped in a trench. The story becomes really interesting when Bosnian soldier laying on the mine wakes up. He lays helplessly watching his Bosnian friend and Serb rookie soldier argue and blame each other for events that lead to their situation. The movie is a war drama filled with comical elements that culminate into tragical ending.
I have to admit that I did not figure out deeper meaning of the movie right away - that the Bosnian soldier on the mine represents Bosnia left to suffer in uncertainty.
The movie is a must-see for folks who love drama.

Rating:
Summary: a must-see for anyone who has spent time in the Balkans
Review: This compelling tale underscores the futility of war and the complete impotence of the UNPROFOR to make any difference in the civil unrest in the Balkans. The story begins as two soldiers, a war-weathered Bosnian and a rookie-soldier Serb, become stranded in a trench in "no man's land" together. The Serb's friend and fellow soldier is also in the trench, lying on top of a bouncing mine, which will detonante if he moves. The film shows the efforts of the the soldiers to elicit rescue by UNPROFOR peacekeepers. There tension and hostility between the soldiers in the trench alternate with moments of kindness, even tenderness, and genuine teamwork in their effort for rescue, until they remember that they hate each other. The French peacekeepers are ordered not to take action by their British commander, because it is too dangerous. A cunning French peacekeeper works behind the scenes, in conjunction with a BBC journalist, to pressure UNPROFOR to permit them to attempt an evacuation of the stranded soldiers. In the end, the rescue effort is to no avail and none of the three stranded soldiers are rescued alive. The movie is very real, from the Bosnian soldier's high-top basketball sneakers, the French UNPROFOR peacekeeper snoozing on duty, the Bosnian commander's lew flirting with the BBC journalist. This is a great picture, one of those movies that will come back to haunt you days after you've seen it.

Rating:
Summary: Must-see land
Review: Stunning photography, simple story, real-life problem, great piece of acting and no-hero centric play form the success of the oscar winning movie.

The movie revolves around 3 men who are trapped in the trench of a land surrounded by both Serbia and Bosnia and part of neither. The rivalry between the countries is well exemplified by the two that argue while trapped in the trench - one trying to kill another and show the vengence and one not allowing other to survive, Wow! beautifully taken. When the two identify a girl that both know, they should become friends but the hatred between the countries overrides them. The dialogues are really punching.

Also shown well is the media trying to make out of all these. Humanity is not behind all these acts. Although it is true that media helps in some cases, sometimes this is more driving.

And so is the ending; though the movie ends in a tragedy, the director has done an excellent job of leaving the solution to the problem. The soldiers who are trapped are dead and made dead and so what is it for the whole saga is? Very complicated question. Countries that fight across the border have to think seriously about this. The culprits are the innocent soldiers who are trapped.

Though the movie is in multiple languages, I did not have a problem understanding the movie as the theme is universal (Of course there was sub-titles).

Great movie to watch!