''No Man's Land'' ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Ničija zemlja, Ничија земља) is a 2001

war film War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about navy, naval, air force, air, or army, land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle s ...

that is set in the midst of the

Bosnian War The Bosnian War ( / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. Following several earlier violent incid ...

. The film is a parable and marks the debut of Bosnian writer and director Danis Tanović. It is a co-production among companies in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Italy, France, Belgium, and the United Kingdom. The film first premiered on 19 September 2001 in France. It later won an

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People and fictional and mythical characters * Oscar (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters named Oscar, Óscar or Oskar * Oscar (footballer, born 1954), Brazilian footballer ...

for Best Foreign Language Film in 2002.

Plot

During the Bosnian War, two wounded soldiers, a

Bosniak The Bosniaks (, Cyrillic script, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia (region), Bosnia, today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and who sha ...

named Čiki and a Bosnian Serb named Nino, are caught between their lines in no man's land. The two soldiers confront each other in a trench, where they wait for dark. Trading insults at first, they eventually begin to find some common ground. Confounding the situation is another wounded Bosniak soldier named Cera who wakes from unconsciousness. A

land mine A land mine, or landmine, is an explosive weapon often concealed under or camouflaged on the ground, and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets as they pass over or near it. Land mines are divided into two types: anti-tank mines, wh ...

has been buried beneath him by the Bosnian Serbs; should he make any move, the mine will explode. A

French Army The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (, , ), is the principal Army, land warfare force of France, and the largest component of the French Armed Forces; it is responsible to the Government of France, alongside the French Navy, Fren ...

sergeant named Marchand, of the

United Nations Protection Force The United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR; also known by its French acronym FORPRONU: ''Force de Protection des Nations Unies'') was the first United Nations peacekeeping force in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Yugoslav War ...

(UNPROFOR), gets involved in an effort to help the three trapped soldiers, despite initial orders to the contrary by high command. UNPROFOR's mission in Bosnia is to guard

humanitarian aid Humanitarian aid is material and Humanitarian Logistics, logistic assistance, usually in the short-term, to people in need. Among the people in need are the homelessness, homeless, refugees, and victims of natural disasters, wars, and famines. Th ...

convoys, remain neutral, and act as a mere bystander. Fortunately, a British reporter arrives on scene, bringing media pressure to bear that moves the UN high command to swing into action to try to save the soldiers. A row between the stressed out and fatigued Čiki and Nino gradually escalates even after being rescued. Eventually, Čiki shoots Nino and in turn is shot by a UN Peacekeeper. Meanwhile, it is discovered that the mine underneath Cera cannot be defused. The UN high command tries to save face; they lie, saying that Cera has been saved and they leave the area, along with the reporters and everyone else. In reality, Cera is left alone and desolate in the trenches, still immobilized by the mine. Meanwhile, the UN commander has arranged false information to be passed to both Bosnian and Serb forces, in order to make them believe that their enemies will be trying to reoccupy the trench at night (which each side would try to counter with an

artillery Artillery consists of ranged weapons that launch Ammunition, munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieges, and l ...

barrage that will presumably kill Cera and destroy the evidence).

Cast

Branko Đurić Branko Đurić (; born 28 May 1962), also known by his nickname Đuro (Cyrillic: Ђуро), is a Bosnian actor, comedian, film director and musician, who lives and works in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Born and raised in Sarajevo, Đurić rose to prom ...

as Čiki *

Rene Bitorajac Rene Bitorajac (; born 2 March 1972) is a Croatian actor. He has appeared in several Croatian and Bosnian films since the 1980s. Most notably, he starred in the 2001 Academy Award-winning Bosnian film '' No Man's Land''. He is also known for starr ...

as Nino *

Filip Šovagović Filip Šovagović (born 13 September 1966) is a Croatian actor, film director, comedian, playwright and journalist. At first known simply as the son of renowned actor Fabijan Šovagović, he has established himself as one of the most prolific Cr ...

as Cera * Georges Siatidis as Sergeant Marchand * Serge-Henri Valcke as Captain Dubois * Sacha Kremer as Michel * Alain Eloy as Pierre *

Mustafa Nadarević Mustafa Nadarević (2 May 1943 – 22 November 2020) was a Bosnian actor. Widely considered one of the greatest actors from the former Yugoslavia, he starred in over 70 films, including '' The Smell of Quinces'' (1982), '' When Father Was Away on ...

as older Serbian soldier * Bogdan Diklić as Serbian officer * Boro Stjepanović as Bosnian soldier *

Simon Callow Simon Phillip Hugh Callow (born 15 June 1949) is an English actor. Known as a character actor on stage and screen, he has received numerous accolades including an Olivier Award and Screen Actors Guild Award as well as nominations for two BAFT ...

as Colonel Soft *

Katrin Cartlidge Katrin Juliet Cartlidge (15 May 1961 – 7 September 2002) was an English actress. She first appeared on screen as Lucy Collins in the Channel 4 soap opera ''Brookside (TV series), Brookside'' (1982–1983), before going on to win the 1997 ...

as Jane Livingstone * Tanja Ribič as Martha * Branko Završan as Deminer * as officer

Reception

Box office

The film had an estimated budget of €2,000,000. The film was a commercial success, earning $1,012,153 in the US & Canadian box office. In total, the film earned $4,858,869 worldwide.

Critical response

''No Man's Land'' received positive reviews among critics and audiences. On

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film holds a 93% approval rating based on 98 reviews, with an average rating of 7.80/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Bleak and darkly humorous, No Man's Land vividly illustrates the absurdity of war."

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which uses a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

, has assigned the film a score of 84 out of 100 based on 29 critic reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Prominent film critic

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

praised the film and cited it as a curiously beautiful film and rated 3.5 out of 4 stars.

Accolades

Some of the awards that the film won included: * Best Foreign Language Film, 2002 74th Academy Awards * Best Foreign Language Film, 2002 59th Golden Globe Awards * Best Screenplay Award,

European Film Academy The European Film Academy is a group of European film director, filmmakers who come together in Berlin on the occasion of the first presentation of the European Film Awards in November 1988. Every year, the European Film Academy honors films an ...

* Best Screenplay,

2001 Cannes Film Festival The 54th Cannes Film Festival took place from 9 to 20 May 2001. Norwegian actress and director Liv Ullmann was named Jury President for the main competition. Italian filmmaker Nanni Moretti won the ''Palme d'Or'' for the drama film '' The Son's ...

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:No Man's Land 2001 films 2001 black comedy films 2000s Belgian films 2000s British films 2000s English-language films 2000s French films 2000s French-language films 2000s German-language films 2000s political drama films 2000s war drama films Anti-war films Belgian war drama films Best First Feature Film César Award winners Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award winners Best Foreign Language Film Golden Globe winners Bosnia and Herzegovina war drama films Bosnian-language films Bosnian War films British war drama films English-language black comedy films English-language war drama films Films about the United Nations Films directed by Danis Tanović French war drama films Heart of Sarajevo Award for Best Film winners Italian war drama films Political satire films Satellite Award–winning films Slovenian drama films United Artists films