Leaves No Stone Unturned. Except One.

Rating: Null/10 (23 July 2005)

A film can be made for a number of reasons. And it can do a lot of things, ranging from entertainment to boredom. But this film is one of the few that make you ashamed.
No matter how much or how little you noticed the inhumanity in Bosnia, no matter how hard you try to remember it or forget it, you must realize this sense of shame deep inside you. Naturally, I am counting on your being human.
Why ashamed? Why us? Because what we did, what ever it was, was not enough. Help we offered was insufficient, measures we took were short of purpose, actions we took were in-consequent.
That, in fact, was confirmed last week when world leaders gathered to express their remorse, saying they were ashamed. I sincerely hope they were. They really need to be. We all do.
We had the experience of two big and many small wars, all ignited, inflamed and fueled by racism, that evil of evils, disguised in one hideous form or other. Yet, all this happened amidst us and we let it happen before our openly closed eyes.
Danis Tanovic who made this memorable film must be a genius. I wonder what such an extra-ordinarily talented young director could not achieve, given the right opportunities and proper grooming.
Back to No Man's Land. It must be understood why this film can be embarrassing for so many because of its honesty. It is not an easy film to watch. It asks you constantly which side you are on. Not a simple matter to decide under the omniscient presence of our devils--hypocrisies we are fed by "global" media, bigot-ism that characterizes our leadership, dysfunctionalaity that we have institutionalized.
This film shows us all. Both the despair and hope in a situation ready to explode any moment. Both sides of war-makers. And of peacemakers.
We see individuals unfold, show us the way they were, and what war has changed them into. A war imposed upon all of them by the greatest racist next to Adolf Hitler himself. Yet a war they themselves choose to fight, hardly trying to reconcile, to overcome hatred against and fear of one another. They kill each other in the end because they are afraid. Afraid to be human.
We observe media concerned to make their day. We see organizations at work, organizations led by aristocrats paid ludicorously large pentions merely to do nothing. They overdo their jobs, by even not letting other do any thing either. Kipling's verse about camels comes to mind. Strange coincidence.
The film catalogs all these efforts, sincere or otherwise. And it makes its point. It shows their inadequacy. How can you help when you do not understand? Or even worse, if you will not understand? Or the worst scenario, if you can not understand. Simply because you are unable to do so. Because you lack empathy. That, precisely, is what this movie makes you realise.
This is one meaningful film. And it tries its best to convey that to you. Though, this does not mean it will be catering much food for your thought or whetting your insatiable appetite for half-truths. No sir, it simply employs a near forgotten technique: it tells the simple and whole truth. It takes you inside the world of discourse, shows you around, challenges you what you would do if you were the man in the trench, in the jeep, in the office.
In order to make you ashamed "No Man's Land" leaves no stone unturned. Except the one whose firmity, that bosnian, the man in question has to rely upon.