Satire in the style of 'Wag the Dog'

Rating: 8/10 (16 October 2004)

'No Man's Land' is the film that unexpectedly took home the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film; most people thought it would go to the French 'Amélie'. The reason this did not happen has probably to do with the themes of both movies. 'Amélie' is a modern fairy tale about little things that make people happy, about love, about something we see in a lot of films. (Although almost never as good as in 'Amélie'.) 'No Man's Land' is a movie about the former-Yugoslavian conflict. It is a movie like 'Wag the Dog'. Both movies are about something that could happen, shown in an exaggerated story to make it a satire.
Both movies are equally entertaining, sad in different ways. 'No Man's Land' starts with a group of Bosnian soldiers. It is the middle of the night and the fog is the reason they have no idea where they are. Daytime. The men are between the Bosnian and Serbian frontline, not a hard target for the Serbs. The Bosnian soldiers are all killed but one, Ciki (Branko Djuric).He ends up in a trench in no man's land. The Serbs send two soldiers to check the situation. They arrive in the trench, put a mine underneath a dead Bosnian body (a surprise for those who will pick him up) and find out that there is a Bosnian survivor. One of the two Serbs is killed by Ciki, the other wounded. His name is Nino (Rene Bitorajac). Now both men are in the trench in no man's land, both men want to get out alive.
In a Hollywood film the two would become friends I guess. 'The Iron Triangle', set in the Vietnam-war, comes to mind. This is not what happens here. First the dead Bosnian on the mine turns out not to be dead at all. Cera (Filip Sovagovic) is his name. The three come up with a plan to get all out alive. This leads up to the arrival of the UN, a French delegation. They are ordered to leave the field by their superior (Simon Callow). A British news reporter (Katrin Cartlidge) catches that conversation and threatens the French UN soldiers to transmit this. This makes sure the UN has to do something. In the meanwhile the conflict in the trench is not over.
I must say no more about the story. Basically it is there to support the satire. The two men in the trench show us with their dialogue how both parties look at the conflict, we see how little the UN can do, we see how things always change into a media circus. The ending is the most like 'Wag the Dog', showing how the media and the world can be mislead by powerful people. Maybe the event in this movie is implausible, but I believe there are stories like this one that really did take place. 'No Man's Land' is a good movie and works as a satire, but it is no 'Amélie' that shows us the most important thins: love!