No Man's Land

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

No Man's Land is a 98-minute wonder: this story of three men in a trench renews the meaning of the word "trenchant."

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

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.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

An absorbing, deeply affecting, well-acted --and remarkably evenhanded -- antiwar statement. It's also incredibly suspenseful and very blackly funny.

New Times (L.A.) Jean Oppenheimer

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.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Almost more valuable as a piece of foreign policy than as the highly accomplished work of cinema it is.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

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.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

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.

LA Weekly Steven Mikulan

Tanovic steers his story away from feel-good brotherhood clichés and toward the darker reaches of human nature. The principal cast is excellent.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

A deeply serious and seriously hilarious fable of the lunacy of war.

Time Richard Schickel

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.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

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.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

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.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

It's a bleakly funny parable that could be titled "Between Enemy Lines."

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

A searing, heartbreaking metaphor for the futility of war.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Like this diabolically designed weapon of war, Tanovic's film is coil-sprung to explode on the unsuspecting.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

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.

Variety Deborah Young

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.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Ends on a cruel, cynical note that would surely make Billy Wilder snort with approval.

Film Threat Michael Dequina

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.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

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.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

From beginning to end, it bristles with ironies in classic Eastern European absurdist style.

USA Today Mike Clark

Land has a lot of funny moments, which are no less serious for being so, especially when the script turns politically prickly.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

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.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

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.

Chicago Reader Patrick Z. McGavin

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.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

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.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

A mordant battlefield allegory with an absurdist edge.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Undeniably riveting.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

A well-mounted, macabre seriocomedy with passing punchlines. And for about half the movie, it's compelling stuff.