2/10: No Man's Land

On Day 18 in my 34 Days of Oscar, I saw the movie "No Man's Land". This movie won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2002.

"No Man's Land" takes place during the Bosnian War and tells the tale of 3

men who are trapped in a trench between the 2 warring armies. The first man, Ciki, was part of a Bosnian platoon that ended up on the wrong side of the trench and were fired upon by the Serbian army. The second man, Nino, is a Serbian soldier sent to see if any survivors made it to the trench. The third soldier, Cera, was part of Ciki's platoon who wakes up to find himself wounded & laying on a land mine in the trench.

Although they insult and distrust each other immensely, Nino & Ciki work together to get the attention of both sides and cause a cease fire while NATO is sent in to try

and extract all soldiers safely. Because of the stress in the situation, the distrust and animosity between Nino and Ciki begins to increase and it begins to threaten their chances of getting out of this situation alive. The movie is also told from the point of view of a French soldier working for NATO who teams up with a reporter to help aid these trapped soldiers when his commanders tell him to stop helping and leave the area.

"No Man's Land" is best described as a war parable. It shows characters in war and the questionable choices they make and the consequences they suffer as a result. This is not a "feel good" movie about war, and it takes no sides. It doesn't really present any soldier in a perfect light. The character we are supposed to side with the most here is the French NATO Soldier, and even he, at the end he makes his own complicated choice. I thought the acting in "No Man's Land" was done well and although this looks like a low budget movie, it still looks better than other war movies that try too hard to show the violence of war and get lost sometimes. I did like how the filmmakers didn't take the Bosnian or Serbian side for this movie and just told a story about war. The final shot of the film left me sad,

but I think it was necessary to get the point of the film across. I understand why this movie won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. The Bosnian War had ended only a few years earlier and was still on the collective consciousnesses of the world. This is the only film from Bosnia & Herzegovina to ever get nominated for an Academy Award, let alone win it too. The honesty in this movie and the ability to sit back and show this from a neutral point of view makes for an a good, but tough, movie going experience.

Overall, I give "No Man's Land" 3.5 out of 5 stars. I will not watch this movie again, but I can certainly see why it won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. It it a sad and brutally honest movie that will make you think long after the credits roll.