Review: No Man’s Land (2001) – The byproducts of war^{Raided Now!}

^{Quality Score: 7.5/10}

^{War – the very meaning of the word, the moral, political arenas on which it is fought, and what it means for those who fight one; all this has changed over the years. But the fact that it involves lives, fears, aspirations, and deaths of ordinary people, not fighters, is brought home in No Man's Land.}

^{A film by the Bosnian Danis Tanovic opens the lid on the conflicting human emotions of the populace of warring sides, on the UN's attempts to bring aid and peace to these regions and blows the lid off the international media that manipulates, and is sometimes manipulated in turn - even on a battlefield.}

^{The story revolves around a Bosnian and a Serb who are trapped in a trench, a no man's land, between Serbian and Bosnian outposts. Branko Djuric plays Ciki, the lone survivor of a Bosnian relief squad that is massacred by the Serbs. He is joined in the trench by two Serbs, who come to check on survivors. He manages to kill one, but endures the other, Nino (Rene Bitorajac). They are safe for the time being from enemies, but neither can leave to return to their respective territories. Their conflict and hatred for each other's community, and yet, the strange bonding that they develop probably depicts the overall Bosnian-Serb conflict. Eventually they discover another 'survivor', from Ciki's unit, whose position puts them both, as well as the arriving UN squad, in jeopardy. With the arrival of the UN, we see the difficulties they face in simply performing their job in some conflict-torn areas of the world. Also their inability, given the political red tape, to really make a difference and bring aid to those who need it most is depicted.}

^{The story progresses through vignettes of the trench; the Bosnian and Serb post’s reaction to their trapped men; the UN's procrastination over performing the job that they were created for; the media's hunger for news, and the "action" that the UN is forced to take because of the media's presence.}

^{There is humor. We laugh when Ciki and Nino play out scenes in which, who holds the gun at the time decides which side started the war. There is also pathos, when we see the faded and worn canvas shoes that the "soldiers" wear to battle, surely a battle that they were not meant to be in.}

^{For those who expect war stories to end in either glory or with an optimistic outlook, No Man's Land has nothing to offer. What it does offer is a satirical outlook at the futility of conflict. Those who appreciated The Thin Red Line will see something they like. A must see, in my book.}

^{Cast - Branko Djuric, Rene Bitorajac, Filip Sovagovic, Georges Siatidis, Serge-Henri Valcke, Simon Callow, Katrin Cartlidge
Direction, screenplay and music - Danis Tanovic
Cinematography - Walther Vanden Ende
Awards – Won an Oscar for the Best Foreign Language Film}

^{Genre: Foreign, War, Drama}

^{-Vijay V. Giri}