It is often the sad fate of foreign films to be relegated to limited art house venues solely because lazy and illiterate Americans have an aversion to subtitles. About a year ago, I recall asking someone who was an otherwise serious film buff—another amateur chair filler like me—if he had seen "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" yet. No, was the answer: He didn’t like having to read a movie.

But unlike the overly ballyhooed Chinese film which made it into general release, "No Man’s Land" sits quietly in my local art house, attracting a select scattering of people who may be there just because this film’s Oscar nomination for best “foreign” film. And that, dear readers, is a damned shame. This is a fine, beautifully produced and acted anti-war film that, given time, will join the pantheon of other anti-greats like "Paths of Glory," "Catch –22," and "M.A.S.H."; it may even be mentioned in the same breath as that Rosetta Stone of war films, "Dr. Strangelove."

The other difficulty for American viewers is that of its war: the Bosnian conflict, when UNPROFOR (United Nations Protection Force) was attempting to keep the Bosnians and the Serbs at arm’s length from each other. And since most Americans don’t read newspapers anymore, and the sound bites have long been filed away this war has an obscurity about it that wouldn’t appeal to most war movie viewers. And that, again, is a shame. Now, with my lecture over, let's begin:

During a foggy night an advance patrol is attempting to get back to the Bosnian lines, but because of the pea soup conditions decide to bed down for the night. With the coming of dawn, low and behold they find themselves suddenly facing the entrenched Serbs who immediately open fire and send the Bosnian patrol scurrying for cover. One by one they fall, all except for Tchiki (Branko Djuric) who despite a shoulder wound manages to dive into an abandoned Serbian trench revetment. But just above the rim of the trench Tchiki (pronounced, it seems “cheeky”) can see the body of his friend Tsera (Filip Sovagovic). Now situated between the two warring lines, this revetment has now lent itself to the title of this film.

From here we switch to the Serbian lines where a two man patrol is sent out to reconnoiter the trench. The two-man team includes the still wet-behind-the-ears Nino (Rene Bitorajac). Nino and his senior colleague make it to the trench, dragging the body of Tsera behind them. What then happens to Tsera is something that even Hitchcock would have approved of. The senior Serbian soldier (Mustafa Nadarevic) uses—appropriately—an American bouncing Betty mine, a nasty device that is armed on compression and then is triggered to blow when the weight is removed from it. He places it under the body of Tsera, knowing that when the Bosnians come along to recover Tsera’s body the trap will be sprung, the mine will leap off the ground and turn everyone within a 30 meter radius into hamburger.

Events proceed, as they do in war, and suddenly after a short while we are left with only Tchiki and Nino, the latter of whom has now suffered his own non-life threatening wound. Not to mention the trouble with Tsera’s body (hence my title) lying atop the mine. At this point I will eschew any more close details except to suggest that wound for wound, quip for quip the film belongs essentially to the banter between the warring Serb Nino and Bosnian Croat Tchiki.

Another film that comes to mind is "Hell in the Pacific," an otherwise forgettable WWII piece (much beloved in childhood, though) staring Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune as two pilots downed on the same Pacific fly spec of an island. Unarmed but nevertheless filled with respective patriotism for their two countries the two go out of their way to make the life of the other as miserable as possible. This is exactly the situation that Tchiki and Nino find themselves in throughout this movie. At one moment the Bosnian has the Kalashnikov, the next moment by happenstance it’s the Serb who has the weapon. Each time one of the requirements of the one facing the muzzle end of the gun is to admit that they started the war. “Why?” they always ask. “Because I have the gun!” is always the answer.

If you think it an otherwise terrible thing to create a black comedy out of a bloody war movie know this: there is only just so much blood in this film but a great deal of howling cynicism that deserves our reflection on the personal nature of war, and yes: it requires our sense of humor to lend meaning and understanding to a bollixed situation in the heat of battle. The Bosnian war was also a modern war that had international participants (the local French UN garrison, derisively referred to as Smurfs), not to mention a zealous press corps willing to do anything to get a live television feed of unfolding events. When the commanding British UN general makes a personal appearance on site during the ceasefire (whose helicopter descent is greeted by an eye-rolling French UN captain whose muttered expression “deus ex machina” caused me to sputter and honk so violently into my Johnnie Walker—yes! my beloved art house has a bar in the lobby—that your otherwise respectively silent chair filler had given cause to be shushed by his fellow theater goers) a solution is finally agreed upon that will extricate only the reputation of UNPROFOR in the press.

To say more would simply give too much of this film away. That I shall not do. I simply need to stress to you, my fellow buffs, the importance of a film like "No Man’s Land." That and to herald the praises of the writer/director Danis Tanovic, who seems not to have any other film credits to his name; none that I can find with my measly research. Ultimately it will be a film like "Amelie" that will carry away the Oscar next month. At this point "Kandahar," another film in the “foreign” category doesn’t even deserve the effort to review it (!); and "No Man’s Land" has been lauded with its respectful nomination that Tanovic will be able to hang on his wall. He deserves much more than that for this superb work. This film deserves general release, and it deserves patronage. For those of you out there who hate captioned films: purchase a newspaper, learn how to read, catch up on world events.




Recommended:
Yes

Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age