no man's land .. if you re looking for a different war film this is IT..

Rating: 8/10 (3 July 2006)

No Man's Land is the term used by soldiers to describe the ground between the two opposing trenches. This film is shoot ed in a valley which is a no man's land between Serbian and Bosnian trenches.
The director of this film Danis Tanovic showed us that a perfect war film can be made without including large bombing scenes, flying bloody dead bodies, cut off heads or spread out intestines with special effects by this way this film brings in a new form of war films.
I think we can call this film as a satirical film because it shows us the uselessness of war. Also it criticizes the idleness of the bureaucracy.
The interesting side of this story is that two characters are at shooting distance of both enemy armies(they are at a no man's land between two lines) and therefore have the risk of dying from friendly or enemy fire. Also another Bosnian lies on a mine in the trench. They cannot run, for they will be shot by the other army, and the soldier lying over the mine cannot move, or it will blow and kill all. In this hard situation he two main combatants never become friends during their trouble. As we can see at the end of the film there is little trust existing between the two. They are both only interested in their own interests, not the other.
This film doesn't take sides in the conflict neither the Bosnian and Serbian. Rather, it's more a human story than a war story, in this film UN is shown bad because they seem careless in this situation. They just interfere the situation when media pressure comes to the scene. This also shows the power of media. It has huge affects even the war situations and even in the life's of people.
As we know this film is a Bosnian film, but we can say that even Bosnians had a very bad history with Serbians they showed the story in most non-judge mental way.
It is not entertainment film. The film is a drama but it also contains some funny scenes. I will give examples of these by using quotes. For instance here is a dramatic sentence; Jane Livingstone: Neutrality does not exist in the face of murder. Doing nothing to stop it is, in fact, choosing. It is not being neutral. And a funny conversation. A french UN soldier approaches the Serbian line and tries to communicate with a Serbian soldier: Sgt.Marchand: We came for people. Serb private: Yes. Sgt. Marchand: People between lines. Serb private: Yes, yes. Sgt. Marchand: Where are they? Serb private: Yes, yes, yes. Sgt. Marchand: OK, you don't understand a word of what I'm saying, right? Serb private: Yes. This conversation makes people laugh so they do not get completely bored of the dramatic situation. Also there is one more quote that took my attention the most: The cameramen asks the reporter that if she wants him to record the trench. And she answers by saying that there is no need, a trench is a trench, they are all the same. But as we see in this situation it is not the case, because the UN forces leave the man lying on the mine in the trench but tell the media that they saved him so if they had turned back and filmed the trench they would see that is not the case but she did not want. So we can interpret this as there are many many things going on in war situations that we are not even aware of.