"NO MAN'S LAND" is like an Eastern European joke, shared over a frothing glass of Pils with smoldering, filterless cigarettes sitting in the ashtray. These kinds of jokes are more grim than hilarious.
Danis Tanovic's movie is no exception: a well-mounted, macabre seriocomedy with passing punchlines. And for about half the movie, it's compelling stuff.
Branko Djuric and Rene Bitorajac star in "No Man's Land."
(United Artists/MGM)
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During the Bosnian war, two Bosnian soldiers and one Serb are stuck inside an abandoned trench in no man's land. It's June 1993. One Bosnian, Cera (Filip Sovagovic), lies flat-out, apparently dead. Ciki (Branko Djuric), the standing Bosnian, who's wounded with tank shrapnel, holds his Serbian enemy at gunpoint. The Serb, named Nino (Rene Bitorajac), is also wounded.
If they poke their heads over the top, one of the sides will fire. These guys are going nowhere soon.
Cera, it turns out, is lying on a booby trap: a spring-loaded mine pinned to the ground by the weight of his body. If he shifts, or if anyone attempts to move his body, the mine will flip into the air and, from a height of approximately three feet, explode lethal shrapnel over a good 50-meter radius.
So, what do they do? Argue, of course. This is Bosnia. Ciki accuses Nino's side of starting the war. Nino counters with his opinions. It gets more heated.
"Who started this war?" asks Ciki, pointing the gun even more emphatically in Nino's face. In the scheme of things, this is a very humorous moment.
Their running argument is interrupted by a groan. Cera, the man on top of the mine, stirs.
And here ends the good stuff. As soon as Ciki and Nino's fellow soldiers contact the peacekeeping soldiers for assistance, the movie gets terminally goofy. All dramatic impact is lost, as French peacekeepers (including Georges Siatidis), their corrupt British superior (Simon Callow), one obnoxiously determined TV news reporter (Catrin Cartlidge) and a German mine defuser participate in an internationally cast, absurdist caper. It's clear that these new characters, mostly French and English, have been included so the filmmakers can sell "No Man's Land" in multiple markets. And it's also clear that, like Ciki, Nino and Cera, we're better off down in the hole.
NO MAN'S LAND (R, 97 minutes) – Contains overall intensity, obscenity and war violence. At the Cineplex Odeon Dupont and Shirlington.
