NO MAN’S LAND International Competition

Awarded Best Screenplay at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, Danis Tanovic’s astonishing first feature film is a provocative fable that takes an uncompromising look at the Bosnian war. The director’s years as a front-line cameraman in the Bosnian army add to the realistic look of this absurd struggle.

Tanovic uses the plight of three soldiers trapped in a trench in no man’s land as a microcosm of the civil war that ripped Yugoslavia apart. When a Croatian relief patrol stumbles through the fog, they are ambushed by Serbs. The sole survivor finds himself face-to-face with a wounded Serb soldier. They vent their hostility and hatred until they become aware that there is another man alive and compromised-in their midst. How they deal with this dilemma provides the compelling drama of this deft and intelligent film.

Tanovic pushes his tale forward with a combination of inexorable fatalism and black humor, making us squirm at the situation while providing no easy way out. Tanovic effortlessly takes us to this place in his riveting and compelling film.