No Man's Land (2001)

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Movie
German title No Man's Land
Original title Ničija zemlja
Country of production Bosnia-Herzegovina , Slovenia , Great Britain , Italy , Belgium , France
original language Bosnian
French
German
English
Publishing year 2001
length 98 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Danis Tanović
script Danis Tanović
production Marc Baschet
Frédérique Dumas-Zajdela
Cédomir Kolar
music Danis Tanović
camera Walther van den Ende
cut Francesca Calvelli
occupation

No Man's Land ( Bosnian / Croatian / Serbian Ničija zemlja ) is a war film from 2001. The European co-production was directed by Danis Tanović , who also wrote the script and composed the film music.

The “war satire” illustrates the absurdity of war through the experiences of a Serb and two Bosnian soldiers trapped in a trench in no man's land . The film also sheds light on the role of the peacekeeping forces of the United Nations and describes the excesses of media coverage during the war in Yugoslavia .

No Man's Land is one of the most award-winning films in Bosnian and ex-Yugoslav film history and has received a number of awards, including the 2001 Best Screenplay award at the European Film Awards and the Cannes International Film Festival . In 2002, the film won the Golden Globe and the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film .

action

The film tells the story of three Yugoslav soldiers, two of them Bosniaks and one Serb . During the war in Bosnia the soldiers got caught between the fronts and had to wait for help in a trench in the "no man's land". Both parties try to kill each other at the beginning. Cera, one of the Bosniaks, was initially mistakenly believed to be dead and placed on a shrapnel mine as a trap for helpers , which would explode if the pressure was relieved, threatening all three men. That is why the two other soldiers now have to work together and find themselves almost on friendly terms. B. both remember a certain Sanja from Banja Luka . When help from French blue helmet soldiers of the United Nations , who have to remain neutral at the beginning according to their orders, approaches, the situation escalates.

The blue helmets bring a German mining expert to the trenches to defuse the mine after they had to withdraw for the first time on the orders of their superiors, but were sent back to the site under pressure from journalists. When it became clear that the mine could not be defused, the trench was cleared and cordoned off. For the journalists, the alleged rescue of the Bosnian is staged by flying the defuser equipment on a stretcher covered with a cloth in a helicopter. Shortly after this staging, the Serb is killed by the Bosniak, who in turn is shot by a French blue helmet. The film ends with a shot of Cera still lying in the trench on top of the mine while the sun goes down.

Reviews

"As a chamber play-like farce staged film that wants to use the microcosm of the Bosnian War as a metaphor for the war in general, but does not go beyond well-intentioned confessions and atmospheric concern."

- Lexicon of International Films

“Danis Tanovic prepared an almost classic confrontation from the endless confusion of that time, very carefully and intelligently. The war: a dilemma, a tragedy. "

- The time

“Tanovic staged a classic drama, used humor to illustrate the grotesque, even absurd, not only of the situation in the trenches, but of this whole war and the so-called peace process. No heroism stands out, no pathos, no forced illusion [...] that also stands for the helplessness and failure of every film about war, that violence that "only" represents the admission of bottomless failure. "

- movie starts

“Directing debutant Danis Tanovic, who was also responsible for the book and the music, worked out a macabre-absurd scenario in his gripping anti-war drama that illustrates the senselessness of war. In Cannes for the best screenplay, in San Sebastian with the audience award, as well as a Golden Globe and the Foreign Oscar, this relentless and critical work is one of the most outstanding films of recent years. Cineastes who are not only interested in world events should take a look here. "

- Video Week

Awards

The film won at the Academy Awards 2002 as Best Foreign Language Film and was able in this category, among others, against Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amélie prevail. The film won the Golden Globe and the Satellite Award in the same category.

At the 2001 Cannes Film Festival , the film received an award for Best Screenplay and was nominated for the festival's main prize, the Palme d' Or. The film was awarded the FIPRESCI Prize at the Croatian Motovun Film Festival and the Audience Award at the Dutch International Film Festival Rotterdam and the Spanish San Sebastián International Film Festival . At the Sarajevo Film Festival , the film won the "Heart of Sarajevo" for the best film and the audience award and in the category of best debut film .

At the French César film award ceremony in 2002, the film was recognized as the best debut film and nominated in the Best Screenplay category. That same year, the award of followed Syndicat Français de la Critique de Cinéma as Best Foreign Film . For the David di Donatello was No Man's Land in the category Best Foreign Language Film nomination. The film won the European Film Prize 2001 in the Best Screenplay category . Branko Đurić was nominated for Best Actor .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Amy Cobin: No Man's Land. In: Film Quarterly . University of California Press , 2006, accessed June 12, 2015 (English, Volume 60, No. 1).
  2. ^ No Man's Land (2001). Website two thousand and one . Retrieved August 22, 2014.
  3. ^ Merten Worthmann: Continued fireworks. How much distance does a war film need? Visiting the Sarajevo Film Festival . In: Die Zeit , August 30, 2001. Retrieved August 22, 2014.
  4. ↑ Ulrich Behrens: No Man's Land . In: film starts . Retrieved August 22, 2014.