"No Man's Land" is an amazing film from 2001 about a day within sight of both Bosnian and Serbian lines. The summer sun shines on two Bosnian soldiers lying injured in a trench in no-man's land, joined by a young uniformed Serb, injured too. One of the Bosnians is lying on a mine; if he sits up, it blows. The other two sport rifles and menace each other whenever they can.
The first half is like a play - cross-cutting from Serb-side to the Bosnian-side, and then back to the "middle trench". A classic conundrum, three countrymen locked in a stalemate, hemmed in on one side by munitions, and on the other by flashes of merciful feelings for each other.
Then, forty minutes in or so, the call is made: both noticing the drama at the same time and thinking the players civilians, Serb and Bosnian commanders radio simultaneously for the final mercy-givers: UNPROFOR, who arrive on the scene in the form of a squad of young, immaculately protected french soldiers in a big white Bradley with "UN" painted on the front. From here on in, it is a delicious farce. The fate of the man on the mine is now a political "incident".
These simple outlines work beautifully because they are (almost) always plausible, subject to very specific realities. And as we move up the chain of command, hypocrisy rules more and more. The only ones with their hearts in the right places are the grunts - bosnian, serbian, french, and in the case of a comically punctual german demining expert, german. All others - commanders, executives, and journalists, are aware of "bigger pictures." And, well, that makes them assholes.
This is an eminently European production - the list of funders at the beginning is a mile long and includes (at least) french, belgian and slovenian state and cable-company financiers. And it's a relief to see military pricks prancing about who are not American, even at the top (the head UN-guy is a brit, played by that comic actor who was the minister in "A Room With A View"). You can realize for a second that in this day and age every rich country has problems managing tribal conflicts, not just US.
Posted by marstall at May 10, 2004 02:19 AMI saw this on DVD recently (the collector's edition). It's a good, moving movie, though maybe a teeny little bit pat in a theatrical, "No Exit" kind of way. Nicely adding to the movie, the Collector DVD has a thoughtful interview with the (very bright and good-looking) young director, Danis Tanovic (a text interview). Also a moving documentary, where the camera focuses on a man, who lost hands and eyes in the war, as he waits helplessly in a house in Belgium to be reunited with his children. Also a good director's comments track.
It's interesting that this is the kind of European movie that doesn't make it in the US, or has very limited distribution. I was always amazed that the remarkable (if a teeny bit over the top) Underground by Emir Kusturica wasn't even released in the US at a time when our military was heavily engaged in ex-Yugoslavia. In France it was a major event (well, in Paris, anyway). I haven't yet seen his newest, Life is a Miracle, which has signs he may have jumped the shark. I remember a concert of Kusturica's No Smoking Orchestra as a teeny bit self-indulgent.
War in Yugoslavia was like a bad remake of WWII, with no good guys, just victims. It's very hard to have a clear moral view of it. So pop-movie-wise you had Harrison's Flowers (actually a French movie), where the war was just a bad-shit-happens backdrop for a story about the dangers incurred by war reporters, itself the backdrop for a love story. Or the grossly simplistic Behind Enemy Lines.
So the best movies about Yugoslavia have been by Yugoslavians. Go figure. Turns out they're not just self-destructive murderers. They're also really smart, talented people. Who knew?
Posted by: Kai Carver at May 17, 2004 07:41 AM