No Man's Land

Name: No Man's Land
Genre: Drama, Comedy, War
Released: December 7, 2001
Duration: 98 min
Rating: 84
Cast: Branko Djuric, Rene Bitorajac

2001

METASCORE

Universal acclaim based on 29 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 45 Ratings

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8.0

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8.0	Your Score
8.0	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 45 Ratings

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No Man's Land

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Movie Details & Credits

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corporation (MGM) | Release Date: December 7, 2001 | R

Starring: Branko Djuric, Rene Bitorajac

Summary: Ciki and Nino, a Bosnian and a Serb, are soldiers stranded in No Man's Land -- a trench between enemy lines during the Bosnian war. They have no one to trust, no way to escape without getting shot, and a fellow soldier is lying on the trench floor with a spring-loaded bomb set to explode beneath him if he moves. The absurdity of theirCiki and Nino, a Bosnian and a Serb, are soldiers stranded in No Man's Land -- a trench between enemy lines during the Bosnian war. They have no one to trust, no way to escape without getting shot, and a fellow soldier is lying on the trench floor with a spring-loaded bomb set to explode beneath him if he moves. The absurdity of their situation would be comical if it didn't have such dire consequences. (United Artists / MGM)… Expand

Director: Danis Tanovic

Genre(s): Drama, Comedy, War

Rating: R

Runtime: 98 min

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Critic Reviews

100

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. Read full review

100

Lou Lumenick

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

100

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." Read full review

Carrie Rickey

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

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. Read full review

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. Read full review

Desson Thomson

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

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User Reviews

wololooo

Mar 27, 2012

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 emphasisIn 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.… Expand

2 of 2 users found this helpful20

ArmondA.

May 30, 2007

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 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.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful

AmurabiM.

May 31, 2006

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 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.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful

marshallv

May 9, 2018

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. No Man’s Land is a comedy/war film directed by Danis Tanovic about the very complicated situation in Bosnia involving the war. While this movie is comical, we felt it could offend someone of Bosnian culture who has any past ties with the war. Something as detrimental as the Bosnian War isn’t something that necessarily you wanna make a joke about. While the movie had some decent comedy, I feel it doesn’t touch on the important parts of the Bosnian War. This movie starts off with a group of Bosnian soldiers as they’re crossing a field and they stop to take a rest but are quickly ambushed by a group of Serbian soldiers camped upon a hill. One of the Bosnian soldiers escapes the area and rolls in a trench. He starts to bandage himself up after he was shot in the arm and he hears 2 Serbian soldiers looking in the area and they plant a bouncing betty under a dead body incase any Bosnian soldiers try to take the body away. The Bosnian soldier eventually comes out and shoots the captain then holds the other one at gunpoint. He’s a bit of a awkward man, bald and his character is comedic because of just how outlandish he is in this war. Like how he is so, quirky unlike everyone else who has such a serious tone. It’s quite the contrast of personalities between the Serbian soldier and the Bosnian Soldier. Shortly after, the Bosnian soldier makes the Serbian soldier take off his clothes for humiliation and wave a white flag as he ran across the field. The Serbians see him and don’t recognize him so they try to mortar strike the area and they hide in this bunker together. After this, they have a serious argument about who started the war. Shortly after the argument, the guy who was presumed dead and placed on a bouncing betty, wakes up and they immediately warn him not to move as there is a bomb underneath him. They sit there arguing some more and they don’t really do anything cause they really can’t. They eventually call the UN for a bomb squad and they check but they basically say they can’t do anything about it. This enrages the Bosnian guy and he shoots the Serbian guy but then the UN shoots the Bosnian guy and they peace the scene. The movie ends with them laying there. The funny parts of this movie were in the interaction between the Serbian and Bosnian soldier. While it doesn’t slander the horrors of the Bosnian War, it still makes it seem so fabricated in the arguments. I have a odd feeling that they wouldn’t be that civil. Besides the interaction between the soldiers, I think the representation of the UN that they had were very accurate as they were portrayed as people who were in the middle and really didn’t care about what was going on between both sides. Also the brutality of the war is showed vividly, more importantly in the scene where they are mortar striking the Serbian soldier even though they didn’t even check to see if he was a comrade or a enemy.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

SlavisaM.

Feb 21, 2006

As I was born in Bosnia and I have lived here for all my life, I was extremely prowd when No Man's Land won the Oscar in 2002. But...I've only seen it later to see, how simple and well, simple it is. In consideration with Amelie Poulain it's a piece of cake, not worth of As I was born in Bosnia and I have lived here for all my life, I was extremely prowd when No Man's Land won the Oscar in 2002. But...I've only seen it later to see, how simple and well, simple it is. In consideration with Amelie Poulain it's a piece of cake, not worth of seing, the least. I do know that people think it's politically correct but..it's just plain simple. Nothing special.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful

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