a microcosm of the Balkan Conflict

Rating: 9/10 (20 April 2002)

"No Man's Land" appears to be a microcosm of the 1992-1995 Balkan conflict. There are many interesting, subtle hints at this--Cera lying on top of the live mine for instance seems to represent the Yugoslavia as it was after the fall of Communism, a bomb that will go off at the slightest disturbance.

There's a prevailing trueness to the whole film. Ciki (the Bosnian Croat) and Nino (the Bosnian Serb) don't become best buds. There's no attempt to erase centuries of animosity between two cultures in one day. They do lower their guard enough to find the solution that gets both out alive (both have their opportunities to kill each other, but do not). This is another part of the microcosm the film represents. No one expects the Croats, Muslims, and Serbs to all get along instantly--they just want the killing to stop. Each man blames the other for 'starting the war.' The Muslim and Croat majority voted independence for Bosnia, leading most Bosnian Serbs, wishing to remain united with Serbia as Yugoslavia, to rebel against the new government. Each man believes he has a legitimate claim against the other.

The UNPROFOR (U.N. Protection Force) soldiers represent, well, the U.N. The events that unfold once the French and British UN troops get involved in the trench between Serb and Croat/Muslim lines demonstrate what happens when a third party gets involved in someone else's battle. We see the futility of a "protective force" trying to stay out of the conflict. "There can be no neutrality in the face of murder," says the French UN captain, who can never properly define his role.
Maybe the best thing "No Man's Land" has to offer is the way it puts you right there in the middle of the conflict. You get a real sense of the sociological texture of that time and place, and how out of place the horror of war is among these seemingly civilized, modern people. You wonder if the same people living together in a different place wouldn't be fighting at all. You get a sense that all that stands in the way of peace is history-or the unwillingness to let go of it.