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 Commander 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.

NO MAN'S LAND is intensely mind-probing and disturbing (Rating: 5.00)
Review : A most deserving winner of the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Film, No Man's Land boasts a script that is complex and disturbing and unflinchingly honest. Danis Tanovic is the genius behind the understated film that examines the role of U.N in the Bosnia-Serbia skirmish with dark and sardonic satire. It tells of a Bosnia-relief group attacked and mired at the frontline. Chiki (Branko Djuric) and Cera (Filip Savogoric) are the sole survivor but even that their fate is undecidedly perilous when a vicious Serb soldier accompanies novice Nino (Rene Bitorajac) to plant a bomb under Cera. It is detonated by pressure-release. Cera is immobilized and Chiki is reluctant to leave him. Nino is held hostage. U.N. sergeant Marchand (George Statdis) cannot bear to watch further - he decides to engage his men to relief the situation.

No Man's Land may deceptively be high-brow and slow-moving but the impact of the film comes out only after the movie which engages you to reflect. It is seethingly savage in reflecting the paradox of war and offers refreshing insight in the intervention of U.N. Compassion is helpless in extinguishing the mindless hatred between Bosnia and Serbs; one wonders when can U.N be ever neutral in a war. Reporters are news-ravenous and profits from their misery. The difference in culture further extracts the U.N from really interacting with both sides. What's most memorable is the cross-fire between Nino and Chiki in deciding who started the war. Questioning slowly becomes an intimidation to make each other admit that they are at fault.

No Man's Land is highly original and even more outstanding for the fine performances from the cast. It is hauntingly disturbing especially in its climax and simplifies the situation without compromising on the material. Unlike most war-film that examines the brutalities, No Man's Land is a brutal dissection of the rationale of intervention and its limitations.

Three Men and a Buried Mine in a Trench (Rating: 5.00)
Review : "No Man's Land," starring Branko Djuric as Ciki (pronounced Tcheeky) and Rene Bitorajac as Nino shows the pragmatics of war. These two men represent each side of the Serbian-Bosnian conflict.

Both are convinced that the other side started it, and later, both are convinced the other side is bombing them directly. Both learn of the injustices done in the name of war done by their own side.

The tension of the story is not the war, but the survival of three men, Ciki, Nino, and Cera (pronounced Tsera, played by Filip Sovagovic).

Ciki, a Bosnian, and Nino, a Serb, end up in a foxhole. Neither wants to be there, and both need the other to get out alive. They don't care about the other, even as they find some common ground like a former lover they each had. The war and its wage of death is the vault between them truly acknowledging the other's humanity, but they lean on each other awkwardly, but effectively to persuade the UN to save them, and Cera, also a Bosnian.

The trouble is that Cera lays upon a mine that will detonate when he moves. Naturally, then, he stays still. The fear of the mine blowing up provides the need for them to work toward a solution. With no obvious fix, they attract the UN, who are a mix of competent and incompetent, passive and intentional leaders. The UN's indecisiveness jeopardizes the soldiers, and their philosophical unwillingness to resolve the problem only exacerbates the anger between the soldiers.

It carefully stands away from the divisive, bitter fight, indicating that the both sides aren't pure in motivation. Each character is so far removed from whatever started the conflict, that any ending becomes a tragedy.

There are two sides to any war: those who are governing it, and those who are fighting in it. Within that war, among those fighting in it, are two more sides: those who believe in the fight, and those conscripted to be there. All are part of this movie.

"No Man's Land" shows that the Big Muddy, as Pete Seeger once sang of WWII, is not just in 1942 or Vietnam. In the trenches, as a force of war's reality, evil occurs. It is the default of war that men are asked to kill, and it is the default of man that the living will die.

I fully recommend "No Man's Land." For a look at a similarly powerful movie about the Irish conflict, see Daniel Day-Lewis and Emma Thompson in 1994's "In the Name of the Father."

Anthony Trendl

Heartbreaking (Rating: 5.00)
Review : This was an extremley disturbing movie but a brilliant work. It took a week for me to get over the movie.

This was the oscar winner when an indian film called Lagaan was nominated, and i wondered what could be better than a brilliantly made film like Lagaan. But after watching No mans Land, i think Lagaan really did not have even the slightest chance of winning the covetted oscars

Watch it people, it taught me to be more humble and humane in life

Great War Movie (Rating: 4.00)
Review : "No Man's Land" is a great movie that deals with the Bosnian War. It has many unique scenes that give the audience more enjoyment to watch. The storyline was wonderfully written. It blends multiple stories into one movie. This is highly difficult considering most of it explores trying to rescue a soldier from a mine that'll detinate if he moves. The acting is great. The gun shootouts scenes, they express their characters' life threateneng terror realistic looking. The environment (the set) looks as if an actual war is breaking, which is good. Such wonderful efforts deserved the Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film(spoken mostly in sebro-croatian). It later won. "No Man's Land" is a great movie for those looking for action and drama. Such substance will keep everyone entertained.