No Man's Land

Rating: 6/10 (17 November 2008)

I certainly recognised the film, and assumed it was all about the attacks on the infamous First World War land, but it was in fact a satirical black comedy. Based in the Bosnian was of 1993, two soldiers: Bosnian Ciki (Branko Djuric) and Bosnian Serb Nino (Rene Bitorajac) are caught in the middle of the No Man's Land trench because they are both avoiding fire from whichever side is out and about, and also Ciki's friend Cera (Filip Sovagovic) is lying on a bouncing mine, threatening the lives of everyone near the trench. News crews from many countries, including Jane Livingstone (Katrin Cartlidge) reporting for Britain are around, and all the local military staff, including Englishman Soft (Simon Callow) are doing all they can to find a mine defusing expert. Ciki and Nino meanwhile are bickering and nearly trying to kill each other also, since they are both each others enemies, and they want answers as to who really started the war. In the end, it's no good, the mine can't be defused, and ends with Cera just lying there, so you can make your own mind up about what he does on his own, everyone else clearing the area, oh, and Ciki shot. Also starring Georges Siatidis as Sgt. Marchand, Serge-Henri Valcke as Capt. Dubois, Sacha Kremer as Michel and Alain Eloy as Pierre. It is interesting to see four or five languages being used in this film, and I especially wasn't expecting quite a bit of English, or a really talented character actor like Simon Callow to show up, so all in all, a very worth while foreign film. It won the Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. It was number 82 on The 100 Greatest War Films. Good!