Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Movie!
Review: Tanovic's movie theme illustrates the similarities between the enemy-the Serb-and the Bosnian Muslim, ending up together in the trench on no man's land: they speak the same language, share the same miserable experience, find out they had the same girlfriend, smoke the same cigarette, hope for the way out... Tanovic symbolically transcends the message that both the Serb and the Bosnian being stuck in the trench are actually stuck in the absurd war for and during which many innocent people had become victims and died. The most profound symbolism of all occurs in the portrayal of the Bosnian lying on the hand-grenade where, instead of effectively offering a helping hand, UN peacekeepers provide him nothing but sympathy. Through this scene, Tanovic emphasizes the notion that while innocent Bosnians were stuck helpless and dying during the war, the others muted and incompetent only observed. The symbolism rendered through the movie resembles the reality of the three and a half-year Bosnian war, and the movie becomes a historical mark that can teach many the circumstances of the war. "No Man's Land" speaks the truth, and Tanovic wasn't afraid of it.
Rating: 
Summary: Very funny war satire
Review: This years Bosnia's Oscar candidate is a war satire about recent conflict in this area.
It is filled with Bosnian humor, which is ironic, black, self-mocking and bizarre.
Bosnian solders, his friend that is laying on a mine and his Serb enemy are caught in the trench between two lines. With nerves on the edge, the mine, that can explode any minute and bullets over their heads, even appearance of UN soldiers and TV crew doesn't calm things down until the grand finale, when (almost) everything is calm and peaceful again.I agree with some critics that say that the story uses many war-film clichés. If you want another, more tragic view of conflicts in ex Yugoslavia, see an excellent Macedonian film 'Before the Rain', which was also Oscar nominee some years ago and is in my opinion more truthful, honest and realistic.
Rating:
Summary: Offers an education on the war on Bosnia from several levels
Review: From a human level and a political level I left this movie with an entirely different perspective about the war in Bosnia. Admittedly I knew very little about it; but this movie provides a glimpse of what the war was like for those involved on the field, and for those involved on the larger stage of world politics.
Rating:
Summary: Best of 2001 --No Man's Land
Review: It's hard to believe this perfectly balanced very funny, dark war satire is the debut feature of writer-director Danis Tanovic. The film has been winning various Festival awards and took the best screenplay prize at Cannes. I'll keep quiet about the too much of the plot because the film
is full of small moments that work best if they surprise you. If you have the idea that this film is only about two guys in a trench who do some decent contemporary updated variation of Waiting for Godot you're in for a big surprise. There's a lot that transpires in the course of the film and characters do not just include a Serbian and Bosnian Soldier but others as well including a female t.v. reporter, several French members of a U.N. peacekeeping unit, a British commander (played by the only face some will recognize in the film: Simon Callow), a German bomb expert and others. This is a sharp witty clever satire that is closer in spirit to
Preston Sturges and Duck Soup, than to Stanley Kubrick but isn't any less poignant in what it has to say about war, particularly the kind of wars fought throughout the middle east. The film-maker is neutral and refuses to take sides, but the message of the film is clearly that remaining neutral in a conflict allows more killing and brutality to occur. The film consistently surprises you. You literally aren't sure what will happen from moment to moment. Sometimes nothing, sometimes a great deal. Sometimes it's cruel, sometimes it's
laugh out loud funny, often it's both. Why are we looking at this beautiful shot of clouds and blue sky at one point in the film? Because it's what that guy on his back sees. But we don't realize that right away. The film isn't flawless. The main problem that's set up surely isn't quite the un-solvable problem it is portrayed to be, but that is also the point about how absurd conflicts often can be.
With every scene the film opens up. The tension increases and then we get to laugh a little more than we should and tension is relieved as the the conflict grows and gets less personal, but then the film comes full circle and delivers what it must--what we expected but almost forgot. It leaves us with a haunting image that reminds us what the stakes have always been. It's not exactly a surprise ending, but it's an ending that has been arrived at without the kind of crass trickery and pretenses we normally get in war films and particularly films that are war satires. There are so many way this film could have and probably should have failed, but instead It's not only successful it also feels fresh and sharp. No Man's Land is a superb film, it's smart, funny and has something to say. Put it at the top of your list and see it very soon.
Christopher Jarmick, is the author of The Glass Cocoon with
Serena F. Holder a critically acclaimed, steamy suspense thriller.
Rating:
Summary: BEST movie of 2001--a MUST SEE!!!
Review: An amazing story, beautifully written--drags you right into the plot, raises and lowers the tension but never lets you completely relax. Even at the end, you're left hanging (though it is a complete, rounded, fulfilling experience for the movie-goer). Real life wrapped in allegory--including masterful dialogue, incredible acting and brilliant direction--NML somehow clarifies one of the most confusing conflicts in the world. I had only a minor criticism:the further it gets from the main characters, the more it moves toward caricature. That aside, it is an absolute MUST SEE!!!
Rating:
Summary: Have to see it
Review: I don't want to reveal anything, it's the best movie ever. It shows how the UN really acted during the war, and believe me, it's a complete truth. YOu have to see this movie. It is the best movie that I have ever seen.
Rating:
Summary: A modern day parable about the farce of war
Review: NO MAN'S LAND opens in the small hours of an impenetrably foggy night with a small contingent of Bosnian replacement soldiers groping their way to the front lines during their 1990s war with the Serbs. Sunrise finds them inadvertently caught between opposing forces, and then the Serbs start shooting. A couple of hours later, circumstances find Ciki and Nino, Bosnian and Serb respectively, marooned and wounded together in an abandoned trench between the combatants. The relationship between the two antagonists predictably starts with animosity, as depicted in a scene in which they volley shouts back and forth, like two children, about which side started the conflict. (Unsurprisingly, the one holding the loaded gun at the moment has the last word.) Then, they almost reach a rapprochement upon discovering that they both come from the same town and both know the same girl, a blond with big ... well, you know. However, the situation is complicated by the presence in the trench of another Bosnian soldier, Ciki's friend, under whose apparently dead body the Serbs had planted a Bouncing Betty mine, which, once the weight holding it down is removed, pops to a height of three feet before exploding. Unfortunately, the "dead" man isn't lifeless, only temporarily rendered unconscious from an artillery round. In any case, once a local French contingent of the UN "peacekeeping" force and the British news babe from a global TV news network get involved, the situation deteriorates. The actors in NO MAN'S LAND will be unfamiliar to U.S. audiences. Branko Djuric and Rene Biturajac are very good as Ciki and Nino respectively. Sergeant Marchand, the long-suffering, honorable NCO in charge of the French UN detachment, and whose sincere efforts to make a difference for the better are foiled by his timid, politically correct superiors, is sympathetically played by Georges Siatidis. This tragicomedy, Bosnia's official entry for the Foreign Language Academy Award, reminds us that tribal conflicts, especially those based on ethnic or religious hatreds (as opposed to simple land grabs), are frustratingly impervious to a rational explanation or resolution. And, furthermore, the well-intentioned efforts by outside do-gooders to reduce the odium will likely be ineffectual in the long run, and may make things worse in the short run, especially if the raisons d'être have been poorly defined. This is a short (97 minute) but thought provoking film. As I was lucky enough to see a pre-release screening, I highly recommend it for adult viewing, though one will likely have to make the effort to find the art house theater in which it will appear.
Rating:
Summary: A Film about Human Nature & War
Review: A satire not only on the Balkan war, but also on human frailties and the follies of human institutions as a whole: Once the dark side of human nature is triggered, destruction is a River of No Return. Where does truth lie: with those holding the gun wielding power? Was the United Nations, vested with the greatest power in this matter, in fact taking side by literaly taking no side? Wasn't the Commandern General of the UN army (a British) who wouldn't like to get involved, wise after all: Wasn't the result much the same despite all the efforts? Were the media, exposing the inertia of UN army, doing anybody any service other than themselves? Was the French troop necessarily more helpful by being warm hearted than the British? If so, where did it lead us to? The film is more like a play than a movie, but we don't need much settings anyway. There is bloodshed but never too bloody, only sadness and definitely not a boredom. You can easily finish it, so to speak, within one breath. However, note that the photos on the box of the DVD are not equally attractive. It may even be misleading at least until you have finished watching the film.
Rating:
Summary: War is stupid
Review: No Man's Land is a raw and powerful anti-war movie set during the recent Balkans War. The premise is simple: men from opposing sides are caught in No Man's Land and are forced to face one another. Yet out of this arises a gripping and powerful story, one that draws the viewer along, and, thankfully, is not predictable. The movie shows the Balkans War--and all wars--for what it was: a stupid, senseless absurdity.
Rating:
Summary: Uh Huh.
Review: It's only natural that I had to review this movie... I survived the war in Bosnia, thus I feel as if this movie is also a part of me and what I went through.
A Bosnian soldier, along with his comrades, gets lost in the fog near the enemy (Serbian) lines. As the night ends, the Bosnian soldiers are awaken by the Serbian soldiers who are out to kill them. As the Serbian soldiers kill majority of Ciki's crew, he seeks shelter in an abandoned trench. But what's this? Serbian soldiers don't easily give up as they send two more soldiers (a veteran and a newbie) to find Ciki and kill him. Little do they know Ciki has a gun with which he kills the old veteran and captures the young Serbian Soldier. Now for the completely irony, Ciki, who is also wounded, gets captured by the young Serbian solider who was his prize moments ago...and so the plot moves on with more twists and turns.
It is important to keep in mind that this movie was the first film from Bosnia that was up for any kind of an award. I was personally not surprised when it won an Oscar. It was only obvious, it won numerous awards in Europe, and it was a given that it was going to bump French's Amelie outta the cell. Even though Amelie was expected to win, No Man's Land swiped an Oscar for the best Foreign Flick. A film that is hatefully loved if you will.
What I liked the best about this movie is the fact that it showed both sides, a Bosnian and a Serbian. And also, the UN side which is LOVED to be hated. Is it just me or does pretty much every new war movie (Black Hawn Down) show what kind of pricks the UN really are? Think of UN as that evil snake from the story of Adam & Eve, they basically come in, stir up some more trouble (that is not needed of course), give both sides some weapons and basically watch them fight it out. This is roughly what the UN's role in this movie is, they're there to help, but they're not really helping. Instead, we see the UN official do what they did in Bosnia for three years, sit behind their big desks, flirt with the secretaries, and give out press conferences that not only confuse the people in the war, but people in other countries as well. As you can see, the UN plays a rather big role in this movie, and what a role it is. By the end of the movie you will absolutely despise the UN, and there is a good reason why.
This movie is much more to a Balkan mind than it is to someone who knows nothing of this war. It showed everything that someone from a war could see, it captured the lovingly hateful chemistry between the two enemies, and how both sides blame each other for starting the war-- which brings me to the only flaw of the movie. The Director/Writer did not really explain how the war began. I realize this movie seems flawless for those who know everything about the war, but those who have just been tuning in, will be a bit lost. Nonetheless, everyone will be able to enjoy the anecdotes that are thrown in every now and then at the beginning of the movie, however, everyone will be baffled and saddened by the ending of this dark comedic drama. You will be speechless.
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