No Man's Land is a comedy/war film directed by Danis Tanovic about the very complicated situation in Bosnia involving the war. While this movie is comical, we felt it could offend someone of Bosnian culture who has any past ties with the war. Something as detrimental as the Bosnian War isn't something that necessarily you wanna make a joke about. While the movie had some decent comedy, I feel it doesn't touch on the important parts of the Bosnian War. This movie starts off with a group of Bosnian soldiers as they're crossing a field and they stop to take a rest but are quickly ambushed by a group of Serbian soldiers camped upon a hill. One of the Bosnian soldiers escapes the area and rolls in a trench. He starts to bandage himself up after he was shot in the arm and he hears 2 Serbian soldiers looking in the area and they plant a bouncing betty under a dead body incase any Bosnian soldiers try to take the body away. The Bosnian soldier eventually comes out and shoots the captain then holds the other one at gunpoint. He's a bit of a awkward man, bald and his character is comedic because of just how outlandish he is in this war. Like how he is so, quirky unlike everyone else who has such a serious tone. It's quite the contrast of personalities between the Serbian soldier and the Bosnian Soldier. Shortly after, the Bosnian soldier makes the Serbian soldier take off his clothes for humiliation and wave a white flag as he ran across the field. The Serbians see him and don't recognize him so they try to mortar strike the area and they hide in this bunker together. After this, they have a serious argument about who started the war. Shortly after the argument, the guy who was presumed dead and placed on a bouncing betty, wakes up and they immediately warn him not to move as there is a bomb underneath him. They sit there arguing some more and they don't really do anything cause they really can't. They eventually call the UN for a bomb squad and they check but they basically say they can't do anything about it. This enrages the Bosnian guy and he shoots the Serbian guy but then the UN shoots the Bosnian guy and they peace the scene. The movie ends with them laying there. The funny parts of this movie were in the interaction between the Serbian and Bosnian soldier. While it doesn't slander the horrors of the Bosnian War, it still makes it seem so fabricated in the arguments. I have a odd feeling that they wouldn't be that civil. Besides the interaction between the soldiers, I think the representation of the UN that they had were very accurate as they were portrayed as people who were in the middle and really didn't care about what was going on between both sides. Also the brutality of the war is showed vividly, more importantly in the scene where they are mortar striking the Serbian soldier even though they didn't even check to see if he was a comrade or a enemy.

'No Man's Land' is a black comedy set amidst an ethnic cleansing war in a catch-22 situation. Set in Bosnia and Herzegovina during 1993 at the time of the heaviest fighting between the two warring sides. Two soldiers from opposing sides in the conflict, Nino and Ciki, become trapped in no man's land, whilst a third soldier becomes a living booby trap. A UN unit go against their orders to help them.The opening night scene is powerful. The chaos, confusion and paranoia of conflict is quite realistic. The absurdity, intensity as well as the senselessness of war is shown well to an extent and there were times when the humor was very well done. I was surprised by the use of so much English in the movie, along with some French dialogues.'No Man's Land' is almost undone by the director's (who fought in the war as well) obvious partiality towards the Bosnian Muslims. The UN and the Serbs are nothing more than caricatures. Serbs are trivialized (in his opinion) as men who prefer other men (I thought that scene would have had more meaning than that and hence was disappointed) while the Muslim, Ciki is a completely heterosexual man who prefers busty, long-legged lasses. Serbs are mainly portrayed as fat, lazy, hateful and incompetent, while the opposite is true for the Muslims. The movie also chides the UN for not butting in (in addition to providing humanitarian aid) and ending the war. The UNPROFOR officer is shown as an obnoxious pervert and I'd wager there were many like him in real-life. But, all these things point to just one thing and that's propaganda. It also falters in the end when the journalists don't check out the trench and it just doesn't fit in with the character, much like Ciki shooting Nino.It won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2002. While it certainly is a worthwhile movie, I cannot imagine how this won an Academy Award. It must be because of the topical issue of the twin tower blasts in the US at the time which had an enormous impact on Americans, since both Lagaan (that got lost in translation) and Amelie which were nominated that year were true masterpieces.7/10

Winner, Best Foreign Language Film, 2002."I've never seen anything like it", says a Bosnian Officer. That is quite a concise summary of the movie. The archive footage, the brilliant script that balances humor with the fanatic attitude of soldiers and the tense and unpredictable ending, all make this movie a must-watch.Serbia has declared a war on Bosnia. Serbians are well-armed while Bosnia defends itself with armed civilians and police force. Cities are razed. Men are killed in the battle. Serbians call it "Ethical Cleansing".A Bosnian relief squad set out to the enemy lines in the night and wait for the fog to lift up. Dawn arrives and by the time they are awake from their slumber, they are ambushed by the Serbian army. However, two soldiers survive. One is assumed to be dead by the other. The other survivor, Ciki, shot in the chest, rests at a makeshift house. Two men from the Serbian army are sent to check the field and Ciki kills one of them and injures the other.The man from the Serbian army, Nino and Ciki have different perspectives of war and have verbal duels over the causes and atrocities of war. They make sure the other survivor, resting on a bouncing landmine, is given due medical aid. They chat up with each other but very soon get back to their fanatic-selves and try to kill each other.UNPROFOR steps in the scene to help them but due to orders they pull back and wait for further orders. Media intervention and live coverage of the situation revs up the rescue operation. Ciki and Nino kill each other and the movie ends with Cera still lying on the undefusable mine.

A true winner of Oscar, however it is difficult to decide between Amelie and this one. The film is one of those rare pieces where you find unpredictable things happening. First there is love and respect which changes gradually. In the starting it was looking awkward but the ending stole the show for me. A film made on a different subject like the cold mountains. It presents very nicely the characters and mental states of the two people. I liked the role of media as well. The duration of the film is well and optimum. In the middle it was looking that they are running out of the plot and may be nothing will be left for them. But then they did introduced new lines and characters well suited to the story. A true entertainment."A definite watch at least for one time."