A group of Bosnian soldiers are attacked by a group of Serbs, and two of them wind up in a nearby trench between Serbian and Bosnian lines. The Serb commander sends two of his own men out to the trench, one gets shot and the other is stuck in the trench with the two Bosnians, one of who is stuck lying on top of a bouncing mine that will explode if he moves at all.

Not knowing what to do, both sides call on the United Nations peacekeeping forces, and despite orders not to intervene, a group of bored French peacekeepers goes to investigate. Things escalate when an English media crew also joins in.

The trailer for No Man's Land struck me as misleading. It made the film look basically like a comedy, and it has to be said this is not really the case. Although it has its moments of black humour (e.g. the Bosnian soldier reading the newspaper and commenting on the horrible situation in Rwanda), this is actually a pretty serious anti-war film. The overwhelming impression I had by the end was an impressive sense of anger at the absurdity and futility of war, at the fact that such a dreadful thing should happen in such a beautiful-looking country, and at the impotence/diffidence of the UN in its refusal to take sides and do anything.

The pacing of the film is kind of slow; the UN aren't called in until about halfway through the film, for example. But don't let that deter you. Although the situation in the trench is evidently meant to be symbolic of the situation in the whole former Yugoslavia, it doesn't beat you over the head to make a point. Danis Tanovic, the film's Bosnian director, refuses the temptation to reconcile his enemies--despite their common terrible situation they remain enemies until the bitter end--and he also refuses a conventional happy ending, choosing something far-darker because more open-ended.

No Man's Land is the first film from director Tanovic; if you saw the Academy Awards in March '02, you might remember it won the Best Foreign Film award. All up, it's an impressive debut which doesn't offer any easy solutions and which perhaps comes across all the angrier for not having them. Highly recommended.