Film Review: No Man's Land (Ničija zemlja, 2001)
Bosnia-Herzegovina, few years after devastating war, had little to be proud of. One of those rare achievements was No Man’s Land, 2001 war film by Danis Tanović, which won Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. This success was greeted with little enthusiasm among its neighbours, including Croatia, where jealousy transcended ideological barrier, although its public expressions were hidden through different interpretations. Right-wing nationalists for some reason accused the film of promoting “equal distance” or not clearly showing who was hero and who was villain during Bosnian War. Left-wing art snobs, on the other hand, couldn’t forgive Tanović for depriving golden statue from their beloved Amelie. More cynical commentators explained Tanović’s triumph with the desire of US cultural establishment to show that, following post-9/11 hysteria, United States can be generous and understanding of a Muslim country. Even many of the positive reviews in US media were interpreted with the desire for “political correctness” rather than artistic criteria. Roger Ebert, whose mentioning of Croats as characters in his review had suggested not watching film very closely, was often cited as one of the examples.
Plot deals with Bosnian War and is set in Summer of 1993. During the foggy night group of Bosniak (Muslim) soldiers takes wrong directions and ends in no man’s land where it would be all but wiped out by Bosnian Serb artillery and machine guns. The only survivor is Čiki (played by Branko Đurić) who takes temporary shelter in an abandoned trench. There he finds Nino (played by Rene Bitorajac), Bosnian Serb soldier whom he decides to spare, thinking he could use him to get back to Bosniak positions. Their situation complicated when they discover that Čiki’s comrade Cera (played by Filip Šovagović) is alive, but gravely wounded and lying on bounding man that could, if detonated, destroy whole trench. Not knowing how to disable the mine, they call French UN peacekeepers for help. Sergeant Marchand (played by Georges Siaditis) wants to intervene, but his superiors are against it until the story is picked by television reporter Jane Livingstone (played by Katrin Cartlidge) who turns whole affair into media circus.
Lack of understanding among US and other Western critics can be best seen in their description of No Man’s Land as a comedy. In reality, it is very serious drama in which couple of sarcastic lines by characters can’t prevent the film to convey message about pointlessness of war, incompetence of international peacekeeping efforts, and people’s inability to overcome hatred with the subtlety of bull in china shop. The message is underlined with a dark ending in which irony mixes with tragedy and the last shot expresses Tanović’s rather pessimistic view that the war actually wasn’t properly finished. Tanović, who has earned his skill as wartime videographer in (Bosniak) Army of Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, effectively uses Slovenian locations, cast from various parts of former Yugoslavia and extracts maximum from relatively low budget, financed by various European subsidies. Branko Đurić, Rene Bitorajac and Filip Šovagović are great in their roles, while British actress Katrin Cartlidge, in one of her last roles, perfectly “channels” Christiane Amanpour. Tanović’s film could have been better if not for quasi-documentary segment with the only purpose to remind or enlighten Western audience about the background and participants of the Bosnian War, which, at least to people who are familiar with the subject, looks completely unnecessary and gives impression of being piece of propaganda in otherwise powerful drama. Tanović has, however, made a very good film and Bosnians have proper reasons to be proud with the most spectacular success of their national cinema.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
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