No Man's Land

Rating: 7/10 (21 July 2007)

This was the movie that I wanted to see because it had won the 2001 Best Oscar for Foreign Language Film during the same year an Indian movie called Lagaan was the top contender for the Oscars. Fortunately I got to see this movie after a period of six years.
The story is about the war between Serbia and Bosnia. Three soldiers are caught  2 Bosnians Muslims and one Serb in a no-man's land patch. All are injured and one Bosnian soldier is laid on a live land mine. UN comes to help, the TV and media land up, the Bosnian and Serbian soldier die and the one of the land mine is left to die by UN  because there is no way to rescue him.
It is a deeply moving story and a good exposure to the war in general. It has human drama, of hate between human beings who are no different and not born to hate and kill each other. Both Serbian and Bosnian soldiers blame each other of starting the war. But the main villains of the story emerge out to be the pathetic bureaucracy of UN Peace Keeping Force, and the media who are waiting as vultures.
The first time Director of a full length feature film - Danis Tanovic, does a good job in covering gamut of issues surrounding the Serb and Bosnia war. He shows guts in exposing the ineffective UN machinery. Danis worked for 2 years on the war zone, and his experience helped in making the fictional movie very authentic in looks.
The three main stars  Branko Djuric as Bosnian Ciki, Rene Bitorajac as Serb Nino and Filip Sovagovic as Bosnian Cera (lying down on the live land mine)  do a marvelous job in acting. The emotions and feelings are showcased raw.
The musical score is minimal but the beginning and ending title music is haunting. Did this movie deserve an Oscar above Lagaan? Was Lagaan a better movie than No Man's Land? It must have had been a tough call for the Oscar panel to choose between Lagaan and No Man's Land. Lagaan was a wholesome Indian entertainer. It has music, emotions, human triumph, joy, celebrations, contest, good  bad, morals and a happy ending feeling. Whereas No Man's Landing was more contemporary  more western in its images, more relevant to the war debates of US. I think the panel must have related to No Man's Land much more than Lagaan.
Surely if the panel of Oscar was universal  Lagaan would have bagged the Oscars. But America rules  they decide the panel and they award a movie. It remains a posterior history now! (Stars 7 out of 10)