I could not find L’America or Before the Rain, so I chose to watch No Man’s Land. What an interesting film! In my opinion it does a great job at showing the absurdity of war. Two men, a Bosnian soldier and a Serbian soldier, are left behind in a trench to care for another Bosnian soldier who has been placed on top of a mine. Neither soldier can remove the man from the mine, because doing so will trigger the mine to explode. Here, in turn, lies the absurdity of their situation.
Throughout the film, the main characters are at odds with one another as to how they should treat the other person. Should they be friendly, share cigarettes, exchange names, shoot each other, stab one another, blame the other for starting the war? I feel as if they are both tired of the war but feel they cannot stop. They have to keep hating each other.
This film had some interesting sneak peaks into life in the Balkans in the early/mid 1990s. For example, the UN was not portrayed very highly in this film. Both the Serbian soldiers and the Bosnians referred to UN peacekeeping forces as the ‘smurfs’ and they did very little if anything to help the main characters in this film. I also found it interesting to see that the Serbian soldiers were the ones wearing the military uniforms and the Bosnian soldiers were portrayed in street clothes.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Great post Cassie--this is indeed an interesting film. And you're right--it portrays the UN in a rather pathetic light to say the least, which is, I think, very realistic with regard to the UN's (non)-role in this conflict. As for the uniforms, that's probably a hint at the fact that the Serb-dominated Yugoslav Army--what was left of it--was fighting against a rather rag-tag militia group in that conflict--again, a realistic portrayal no doubt. Jeff
I also think this movie is well done. So much passion is displayed among the soldiers. Passion for wanting to live, for wanting your comrade to live, for hating your enemy, and for trying to get along with your enemy. The fact that two of the soldiers are dead at the end just shows how debilitating revenge is. Who got revenge? Who won?
Very interesting Film, I will keep it in mind to watch in the future.
Thanks for sharing.
Post a Comment