Tuesday, March 3, 2009
No Man's Land
Set in the war between Bosnia and Herzegovina during 1993, "No Man's Land" is the story of the interactions between three soldiers and the highly unfortunate situation that they are involved in. The soldiers include a Bosnian Serb and a Bosniak Muslim caught in the dead zone between the two warring sides find themselves trapped together with another Bosniak Muslim who comes to consciousness trapped laying on a land mine. The general concept of the film is a generally ridiculous yet interestingly frightening possibility in times of war. While conventional wisdom would lead one to believe the soldiers to be entirely malicious in their intentions, that does not turn out to be the case. In order to dispel the expected stereotype of Eastern European savagery, Danis Tanovic shows the soldiers interacting humanely despite their perilous circumstances. Yet, when the trapped Bosniak Muslim is introduced to the situation, the focus of the movie seems to shift completely to the disregard that the United Nations shows for the dire nature of these individuals' situation. In addition, the comparing and contrasting of these two enemies in this absurd situation stresses the shared humanity despite different beliefs. Using humor, Tanovic employs it as a means to exaggerate the ridiculousness of the situation they are trapped in as well as the dialogue being exchanged. While this has some effect on the tone of the film, the general horridity of the plight of the soldiers takes a sort of precedence over that throughout the majority of the movie. This causes for a slightly comedic tone, yet the knowledge of the impending doom of the soldiers provides for a mixing of genres. This melting pot is successful at points and inadequate at others, but ultimately provides enough punch to get the general point across.
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I think that there is more to be said than their situation than that it "stresses shared humanity despite different beliefs." At one point Ciki and Nino hold each other at gun point and ask who started the war. Also while in the trench Nino barbarically attacks Ciki with a knife, and later Ciki shoots Nino while he is climbing out to go with the UN, not to mention the shootout at the end in front of all of the reporters. All in all I agree that there is an element of shared humanity but it seems that the situation more complicated than two soldiers "interacting humanely."
ReplyDeleteI agree with your assessment of the mixing of genres completely. However, I think that as the film nears the end Tanovic almost completely drops all use of humor as it would no longer be appropriate within the situation. I would also say that while Tanovic does a great job of humanizing the soldiers, he also shows the audience what war can cause normally nice people - Nikko, for instance - to do - stabbing and trying to shoot Ciki- when they are caught up in situations they can't control. All in all, I thought this review was a great assessment of "No Man's Land".
ReplyDeleteI disagree with your statement that the focus of the movie shifts to the UN's disregard of the individuals caught in the situation. Even thuogh this is made out to be true for the higher up positions in the UN, the actual soldiers, such as Sgt. Marchant, do seem to care. Sgt. Marchant goes as far as to get aid from the reporter Jane Livingston to get his superiors to send him back into the trenches to help the three men. During this he even tells her when his commanding officer is lying to her, which is definitely against the UN policies.
ReplyDeleteI agree on how the director used humorous elements throughout the film even though the film was mainly about war such as when Cikki and Nino were arguing about who started the war. Overall, good analysis of the movie.
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