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No Man's Land
Metascore
84 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 29 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 28 out of 29
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 29
  3. Negative: 0 out of 29
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  1. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    100
    In the remarkable, ferociously intelligent new film No Man's Land, Bosnian writer-director Danis Tanovic gives us a movie portrait of the Bosnian War, a conflict that has devastated his country, friends and neighbors -- and found in it both shocking humor and searing, relentless tragedy.
  2. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    100
    An absorbing, deeply affecting, well-acted --and remarkably evenhanded -- antiwar statement. It's also incredibly suspenseful and very blackly funny.
  3. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    100
    The film is exciting in two big ways: its simplicity of story (Tanovic does not get bogged down trying to give us an epic history) and the breadth of Tanovic's vision.
  4. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Michael Sragow
    100
    No Man's Land is a 98-minute wonder: this story of three men in a trench renews the meaning of the word "trenchant."
  5. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    100
    Almost more valuable as a piece of foreign policy than as the highly accomplished work of cinema it is.
  6. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    100
    A savage comedy about the war in the former Yugoslavia that artfully mixes comic absurdism with a passion for what's right and a concern for the individuality of all concerned.
  7. New Times (L.A.)
    Reviewed by: Jean Oppenheimer
    100
    Tanovic describes it as "a very serious film with a sense of humor." It is an apt description for a very remarkable film, one of the best of the year.
  8. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Steven Mikulan
    90
    Tanovic steers his story away from feel-good brotherhood clichés and toward the darker reaches of human nature. The principal cast is excellent.
  9. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    90
    Fierce, funny and finally devastating, Tanovic's superb film offers a timely look at the roots of civil war and acts of terrorism on both sides that can be exploited by political and media hypocrites alike.
  10. Time
    Reviewed by: Richard Schickel
    90
    All the actors in No Man's Land are wonderfully alive, fractious and unpredictable. Their performances also help break down the schematics and turn this into an emotionally potent, powerfully thoughtful and finally tragic experience.
    All this critic's reviews
  11. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    90
    A deeply serious and seriously hilarious fable of the lunacy of war.
    All this critic's reviews
  12. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    88
    It's a bleakly funny parable that could be titled "Between Enemy Lines."
  13. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Rene Rodriguez
    88
    A searing, heartbreaking metaphor for the futility of war.
  14. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Carrie Rickey
    88
    Like this diabolically designed weapon of war, Tanovic's film is coil-sprung to explode on the unsuspecting.
  15. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    88
    Begins and ends quietly, like stirrings of thunder from a distant storm. In between comes a tragedy that rolls over us like a compact hurricane.
  16. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    83
    It's a merciless and mirthlessly funny antiwar weapon from a filmmaker who has seen battle firsthand and has lived to make art from memories of hell.
  17. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    80
    Ends on a cruel, cynical note that would surely make Billy Wilder snort with approval.
  18. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Michael Dequina
    80
    While the audience has its laughs along the way, the violent tension of war often threatens to erupt, and slowly, subtly gathering force is the film's emotional weight, which is potently felt by the film's indelible (if not exactly unexpected) concluding image.
  19. Variety
    Reviewed by: Deborah Young
    80
    As a tyro auteur, Tanovich has a heavy-handed way of delineating characters and situations that makes this well-meaning film awfully familiar at times.
  20. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    75
    Some of the film's points are made a bit too heavily, but the subject is as timely as it is timeless, and many of the performances strike a pitch-perfect balance between parody and passion.
  21. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jami Bernard
    75
    Writer-director Danis Tanovic, a Bosnian who spent years documenting his homeland's turmoil, makes a bold feature-film debut with this funny, sobering message movie.
  22. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Mike Clark
    75
    Land has a lot of funny moments, which are no less serious for being so, especially when the script turns politically prickly.
  23. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Jay Carr
    75
    From beginning to end, it bristles with ironies in classic Eastern European absurdist style.
    All this critic's reviews
  24. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: J. Hoberman
    70
    A mordant battlefield allegory with an absurdist edge.
  25. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    70
    One of the movie's dark running jokes is that everyone seems to speak a different language and has trouble communicating. The continual struggle of people to make themselves understood becomes a metaphor for the war itself.
  26. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Stephen Hunter
    70
    You want a happy ending? You want sunshine, sentimentality, a sense of justice and honor and duty? Me too. But you won't find it here.
  27. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Patrick Z. McGavin
    70
    while the war-as-insanity metaphor clearly fits the cruel, heartbreaking story, its force is undercut by a succession of character types -- ambitious television journalists, outmatched UN peacekeepers, overbearing politicians.
  28. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: William Arnold
    67
    Undeniably riveting.
  29. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    60
    A well-mounted, macabre seriocomedy with passing punchlines. And for about half the movie, it's compelling stuff.
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User Reviews

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User Score
8.5 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 30 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 17
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 17
  3. Negative: 0 out of 17
  1. wololooo
    9
    In No Man's Land, Danis Tanociv takes a simple premise, and applies it with a huge amount of intelligence and wit. The dialogue is sharp and often hilarious, and watching the Bosnian and Serb soldiers play off each other is one of the highlights of the film. There's a much greater emphasis on narrative and symbolism than cinematography, which is nothing special but gets the job done nicely. Tanovic paints a cynical portrait of the UN, questioning their involvement as peacemakers. The ending was merciless and not at all what I expected, but nonetheless brilliant. No Man's Land deserved the Oscar for best foreign language picture, and is a stellar debut from Tanovic.… Full Review »
  2. ArmondA.
    9
    This is a darkly comic version of ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, and viewers tend to ask whether its political even-handedness doesn't cause it to suffer from the same fault that plagued the old classic. To many veterans and students of "The Great War", it is wrong-headed to portray the German soldiers so sympathetically, even though many of them were indeed just poor slobs doing the dirty work of the Kaiser and his privileged court. At the screening of No Man's Land in my house, our guest was a young diplomat from Croatia who gave us insight into the mutual contribution of the Serbs and Croats to the shooting war in Bosnia. The latter country became a surrogate battleground for other breakaway Yugoslav provinces whose interests were defined by their ex-patriots living abroad. In truth there was no clear victim-villain situation, which makes the dark cynicism of the auteur more in keeping with the facts than one might think.… Full Review »
  3. AmurabiM.
    7
    Absurdist and serious comedy of war. This is an attempt to de-mitify the war at Bosnia, covering it with a plenty of black humor. But I have a complain, why american people think that the war in Balcans was terrible and don´t act at the precise moment? I think this film is overrated because that hypocritical sentiment. It´s the triumph of the political correction over the really significant cinematographic values.… Full Review »
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