No Man's Land (2001)

Set in 1993, during the Bosnian war, the thick fog of night leads a Bosnian reinforcement squad directly into enemy Serbian territory. After a few altercations, three surviving soldiers are left in a trench between enemy lines at the mercy of a good-for-nothing United Nations team. Bosnian troop Ciki and Serbian troop Nino quarrel with tidbits of working together all while the second Bosnian troop awakes to realize that one wrong move could detonate the deadly bouncing mine, placed beneath his body while unconscious, and destroy them all.

Director Denis Tanovic skillfully manipulates all aspects of the film in order to hit the audience with agonizing contradictions. The beautiful Bosnian Landscape is highlighted many times throughout the film creating a sense of stillness and calmness. Gentle Wind-blown plains come right to the tip of the trench which is filled with frequent skirmishes including gunfire, stabbings, and yelling. Serenity and intensity, beauty of landscape and the ugliness of war, reason of Sergeant Marchand and Cera and impracticality of the United Nations and Ciki and Nino are all mixed into the tension created in the film. However, Tanovic is not limited to expressing the conflicting views through the great acting in the film, camera shots enormously aid in presenting the harsh realities expressed. Omniscient viewpoint allows for alternating close up shots of Ciki and Nino during arguments and conflicts give the viewer an up-close unbiased account of the struggles as they begin to feel and experience the “on-edge” atmosphere. The audience sees the reality of the conditions through the expressions of the soldiers: disgust, hate, hope, anguish, uncertainty to name a few.

While the main theme of the film is the absurdity of war, other supplementary themes such as the impossibility of neutrality, the inefficiency of chains of command, heartlessness of news reporting, and many others help to create what is No Man’s Land- a place where nothing can be solved, and stillness and mania meet and coexist.