Filmed in Slovenia by Bosnian writer-director Danis Tanovic, "No Man’s Land" is set in Bosnia of 1993. A ragtag band of half a dozen Bosnian soldiers is lost in the fog with a guide who has never before tried to lead anyone to the Bosnian position at night. They decide to stop and wait for the dawn. The sun rises behind the Serbian (Yugoslavian) position. The Bosnians recognize the flag about the same time as Serbian guns open fire, seemingly killing all of them except for Ciki (Branko Djuric), whose uniform shirt is raffishly unbuttoned over a t-shirt with the Rolling Stones tongue.

Ciki dives into a deserted trench (the "no man’s land" between the Bosnian and Serbian lines). With the sun still low on the horizon behind them (and, therefore, blinding the main Bosnian force), a pair of Serbs -- one experienced, one so new that no one yet knows his name -- are sent out to check on the corpses. The veteran is soon a corpse himself, though not before booby-trapping the corpse of Ciki’s friend Cera (Branko Djuric). Nino (Rene Bitorajac), the novice Serbian soldier is captured by Ciki and Ciki is enraged that Nino does not know how to defuse the bomb that will be detonated by lifting Cera’s body – which, it turns out, is not lifeless after all. Cera was only stunned and now cannot move without blowing up himself and anyone nearby.

The situation of these three men provides plenty of absurdist humor of the Samuel Beckett kind. Enemy soldiers thrown together in Hollywood movies discover each other’s humanity or at least learn to co-operate (Hell in the Pacific, Enemy Mine), but this is not what happens in the former Yugoslavia (maybe it would have if Cera and Nino were on a roughly equal footing…)

Commanders from both sides can’t figure out what is going on out in no man’s land and call upon UNPROFOR, the U.N.'s military force, locally called Smurfs" because of their toy-like white armored vehicles and blue helmets (and their unwillingness to dirty their hands by doing anything). If Godot is at all like UNPROFOR, it is just as well the wait for him does not end in "Waiting for Godot."

The UNPROFOR British commander (Simon Callow) wants nothing to do with the situation, but a French sergeant named Marchand (Georges Siatidis) close to the scene is tired of doing nothing and co-operates with a reporter for a CNN-like Global Television Network, Jane Livingstone (Katrin Carlidge), to attempt to rescue the three soldiers. One has to pay attention to realize the fullness of the catastrophe that results (since it is not shown).

The "locals" are far from reasonable, but they are babes in the woods in comparison to the profoundly cynical officers from NATO countries preoccupied with public relations. Livingstone (and Marchand) are after more than a story, but soon a herd of press jackals has assembled (echoing the media circus in Billy Wilder’s darkest film, "Ace in the Hole"). Ciki and Nino are united at least in contempt for the questions the reporters ask them.

I don’t want to reveal the insidious twists and turns of the confrontations of Ciki and Nino or how the outsiders’ presence plays out, beyond saying that no good deed goes unpunished.

Although it’s not my favorite foreign-language film of 2001 ("The Adventures of Felix" is that), this is the one most likely to get the foreign-language film Oscar. (At least a quarter of it is in English, the lingua franca for communication to and among the UN forces.)

I think the swarming press is something of a cliché, but the rest of the film is brilliant black (very black) comedy. Tanovic notices natural beauty, but those familiar with the canon of films about trench warfare will remember what happens when the hero of "All Quite on the Western Front" reaches for a flower; that long-ago film was upbeat in comparison to this one.



Recommended:
Yes