Monday, June 6, 2016

961. No Man's Land

No Man's Land
2001
Directed by Danis Tanovic













This is one of the more obscure films on the List.  I couldn't even find a screenshot to use for the post, and I'm not promising that the interesting facts section today will be entirely interesting.  In any case, how often do you get to watch a Bosnian film?  While I was excited to watch a film from a rather underrepresented area, the Bosnian War is one of the most upsetting conflicts to study.  Not to worry.  The Pianist is coming up and will probably lighten the mood.

A group of Bosnian soldiers gets lost in enemy territory.  The group is attacked by Bosnian Serbs, leaving only Ciki and Cera wounded but alive.  Two soldiers from the Serb front check out the trench where their enemy has fallen.  They accidentally activate a bouncing mine, but prevent it from going off by placing Cera's wounded body on the mine.  Now if Cera moves they will all die.  Ciki manages to kill one of the soldiers but only wounds the other Serb, Nino.

The premise sounds more interesting that the actual film.  It almost sounds like it would be similar to Wages of Fear, where you are on the edge of your seat for the entire movie.  Unfortunately, the film loses steam about halfway through.  I wish we could have kept the cast small; this premise actually has the potential to be a pretty decent play.  Once the UN got involved in the story, I felt as though the tension was gone.  It became less of a character study and more of a political statement.  Which is fine, I suppose, but I definitely enjoyed the first half more.

So in the end, one that I am glad to have seen but probably will never watch again.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Won Best Foreign Film Oscar.

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