Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 2001
No Man's Land (2001 film)
Buy No Man's Land (2001 film) now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'No Man's Land' (, ) is a 2001 Bosnian war film that is set in the midst of the Bosnian War. The film is a parable and marked the debut of Bosnian writer and director Danis Tanovi. It is a co-production among companies in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Italy, France, Belgium and the UK. The film won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2002.
Plot
Two wounded soldiers, a Bosniak (iki, portrayed by Branko uri) and a Bosnian Serb (Nino, portrayed by Rene Bitorajac) are caught between their lines in the no man's land, in a struggle for survival. The two soldiers confront each other in a trench, where they wait for dark. They trade insults and even find some common ground. Confounding the situation is another wounded Bosniak soldier (Cera, portrayed by Filip ovagovi) who wakes from unconsciousness. A land mine had been buried beneath him by the Bosnian Serbs; should he make any move, it would be fatal.
A French sergeant (Marchand, portrayed by Georges Siatidis), of the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR), gets involved in effort to help the three trapped soldiers, despite initial orders to the contrary by high command. UNPROFOR's mission in Bosnia was to guard the humanitarian aid convoys, to remain neutral and act as a mere bystander. Luckily, an English reporter arrives on scene, bringing media pressure to bear that moves the United Nations high command to swing into action to try to save the soldiers.
A row between the stressed out and fatigued iki and Nino gradually escalates even after being rescued. Eventually, iki shoots Nino and is in turn shot by a Peacekeeper. Meanwhile, it is found that the mine cannot be defused. The UNPROFOR high command tries to save face: they lie, saying that Cera has been saved and they leave the area, along with the reporters and everyone else.
In reality, Cera is left alone and desolate in the trenches, still immobilized by the mine. Meanwhile, the UNPROFOR commander has arranged false information to be passed to both Bosnian and Serb troops, to make them believe their enemies will be trying to reoccupy the trench at night (which each side would try to counter with an artillery barrage that presumably will kill Cera and obliterate the evidence).
Cast
*Branko uri - iki
*Rene Bitorajac - Nino
*Filip ovagovi - Cera
*Georges Siatidis - Sergeant Marchand
*Serge-Henri Valcke - Captain Dubois
*Sacha Kremer - Michel
*Alain Eloy - Pierre
*Mustafa Nadarevi - Older Serbian soldier
*Bogdan Dikli - Serbian officer
*Boro Stjepanovi - Bosnian soldier
*Simon Callow - Colonel Soft
*Katrin Cartlidge - Jane Livingstone, journalist
*Tanja Ribi - Martha
*Branko Zavran - Deminer
* - officer
Accolades
Some of the awards that the film won are:
*Best Foreign Language Film, 2002 74th Academy Awards
*Best Foreign Language Film, 2002 59th Golden Globe Awards
*Best Screenplay Award, European Film Academy
*Best Screenplay, 2001 Cannes Film Festival
See also
*'Wicked Spring'
References
Buy No Man's Land (2001 film) now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 2001