Fiction, but at least it lets us make a stab at understanding the Bosnian war

Rating: 7/10 (22 May 2002)

I suppose it deserved it's Oscar for Best Foreign Film although I reckon there was some sympathy voting going on as well. A Bosnian conflict story that exposes the `UN Peacekeeping Force' for the window-dressing that it may well be in real life. Convincing battle stuff with mines and gun wounds that are quite chilling in their close-to-home feel, and the main characters maintaining the senseless enmity that seems so hard to understand from a distance of a Western country that is not torn apart by war. The value of a film like this is perhaps it gives us a tool with which to try and visualise real and rather horrible recent events.