NO MAN'S LAND

Year: 2001
USA: United Artists/MGM
UK: Momentum Pictures
Cast: Branko Djuric, Rene Bitorajac, Filip Sovagovic, Georges Siatidis, Serge-Henri Valcke, Sacha Kremer, Alain Eloy, Mustafa Nadarevic, Bogdan Diklic, Simon Callow, Katrin Cartlidge, Tanja Ribic, Branko Zavrsan
Director: Danis Tanovic
Countries: Belgium / Bosnia-Herzegovina / France / Italy / Slovenia / UK
Language: Serbo-Croat (English subtitles)
USA: 88 mins
UK: 97 mins
USA Rated: R for violence and language
UK Certificate: 15 contains strong language and moderate bloody violence
USA Release Date: 7 December 2001 (Limited Release)
UK Release Date: 17 May 2002

Synopsis

The language spoken by the Serbians, the Croatians and the Bosnians is in fact the same. Today, the Serbians call it Serbian while the Bosnians call it Bosnian and the Croatians call it Croatian; yet when they speak they all understand each other perfectly.

Ciki (Branko Djuric) and Nino (Rene Bitorajac), 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.

With the two men stuck in a bizarre predicament, a frustrated UN sergeant tries to help, despite orders to remain at his post. When a journalist waylays the sergeant while pushing for an exclusive scoop, she affects the unfolding of events and turns a news story into an international circus. With the world's press waiting for an outcome, no one willing to take action (lest they accept responsibility), and a soldier still stuck with a bomb beneath him, Ciki and Nino try to keep their humanity amidst the insanity of war. Between war and peace, humour and hate, capture and surrender, life and death - lies NO MAN'S LAND, Bosnia's official entry for the Foreign Language Academy Award®.