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No Man's Land
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corporation


8.5

based on 29 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 26 votes
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Internet Movie Database

MPAA RATING: R for violence and language

Starring Branko Djuric, Rene Bitorajac, Filip Sovagovic, Georges Siatidis, Serge-Henri Valcke, and Sacha Kremer

Ciki and Nino, 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. (United Artists / MGM)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Danis Tanovic
DIRECTED BY:	Danis Tanovic
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: April 9, 2002 Video: April 9, 2002 Theatrical: December 7, 2001
RUNNING TIME:	97 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	Bosnia-Herzegovina / Slovenia / Italy / France / UK / Belgium
LANGUAGE(S):	Bosnian (with English subtitles)

Picked up an Oscar (2002) and a Golden Globe (2001) for Best Foreign Language Film. Also awarded for Best Screenplay, 2001 Cannes Film Festival.

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

No Man's Land is a 98-minute wonder: this story of three men in a trench renews the meaning of the word "trenchant."

100

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

In the remarkable, ferociously intelligent new film No Man's Land, Bosnian writer-director Danis Tanovic gives us a movie portrait of the Bosnian War, a conflict that has devastated his country, friends and neighbors -- and found in it both shocking humor and searing, relentless tragedy.

100

New York Post Lou Lumenick

An absorbing, deeply affecting, well-acted --and remarkably evenhanded -- antiwar statement. It's also incredibly suspenseful and very blackly funny.

100

New Times (L.A.) Jean Oppenheimer

Tanovic describes it as "a very serious film with a sense of humor." It is an apt description for a very remarkable film, one of the best of the year.

100

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Almost more valuable as a piece of foreign policy than as the highly accomplished work of cinema it is.

100

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

The film is exciting in two big ways: its simplicity of story (Tanovic does not get bogged down trying to give us an epic history) and the breadth of Tanovic's vision.

100

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

A savage comedy about the war in the former Yugoslavia that artfully mixes comic absurdism with a passion for what's right and a concern for the individuality of all concerned.

LA Weekly Steven Mikulan

Tanovic steers his story away from feel-good brotherhood clichés and toward the darker reaches of human nature. The principal cast is excellent.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

A deeply serious and seriously hilarious fable of the lunacy of war.

Time Richard Schickel

All the actors in No Man's Land are wonderfully alive, fractious and unpredictable. Their performances also help break down the schematics and turn this into an emotionally potent, powerfully thoughtful and finally tragic experience.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Fierce, funny and finally devastating, Tanovic's superb film offers a timely look at the roots of civil war and acts of terrorism on both sides that can be exploited by political and media hypocrites alike.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Begins and ends quietly, like stirrings of thunder from a distant storm. In between comes a tragedy that rolls over us like a compact hurricane.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

It's a bleakly funny parable that could be titled "Between Enemy Lines."

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

A searing, heartbreaking metaphor for the futility of war.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Like this diabolically designed weapon of war, Tanovic's film is coil-sprung to explode on the unsuspecting.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

It's a merciless and mirthlessly funny antiwar weapon from a filmmaker who has seen battle firsthand and has lived to make art from memories of hell.

Variety Deborah Young

As a tyro auteur, Tanovich has a heavy-handed way of delineating characters and situations that makes this well-meaning film awfully familiar at times.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Ends on a cruel, cynical note that would surely make Billy Wilder snort with approval.

Film Threat Michael Dequina

While the audience has its laughs along the way, the violent tension of war often threatens to erupt, and slowly, subtly gathering force is the film's emotional weight, which is potently felt by the film's indelible (if not exactly unexpected) concluding image.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Writer-director Danis Tanovic, a Bosnian who spent years documenting his homeland's turmoil, makes a bold feature-film debut with this funny, sobering message movie.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

From beginning to end, it bristles with ironies in classic Eastern European absurdist style.

USA Today Mike Clark

Land has a lot of funny moments, which are no less serious for being so, especially when the script turns politically prickly.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Some of the film's points are made a bit too heavily, but the subject is as timely as it is timeless, and many of the performances strike a pitch-perfect balance between parody and passion.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

One of the movie's dark running jokes is that everyone seems to speak a different language and has trouble communicating. The continual struggle of people to make themselves understood becomes a metaphor for the war itself.

Chicago Reader Patrick Z. McGavin

while the war-as-insanity metaphor clearly fits the cruel, heartbreaking story, its force is undercut by a succession of character types -- ambitious television journalists, outmatched UN peacekeepers, overbearing politicians.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

You want a happy ending? You want sunshine, sentimentality, a sense of justice and honor and duty? Me too. But you won't find it here.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

A mordant battlefield allegory with an absurdist edge.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Undeniably riveting.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

A well-mounted, macabre seriocomedy with passing punchlines. And for about half the movie, it's compelling stuff.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.5 (out of 10) based on 26 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Armond A. gave it a9:
This is a darkly comic version of ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, and viewers tend to ask whether its political even-handedness doesn't cause it to suffer from the same fault that plagued the old classic. To many veterans and students of "The Great War", it is wrong-headed to portray the German soldiers so sympathetically, even though many of them were indeed just poor slobs doing the dirty work of the Kaiser and his privileged court. At the screening of No Man's Land in my house, our guest was a young diplomat from Croatia who gave us insight into the mutual contribution of the Serbs and Croats to the shooting war in Bosnia. The latter country became a surrogate battleground for other breakaway Yugoslav provinces whose interests were defined by their ex-patriots living abroad. In truth there was no clear victim-villain situation, which makes the dark cynicism of the auteur more in keeping with the facts than one might think.

Amurabi M. gave it a7:
Absurdist and serious comedy of war. This is an attempt to de-mitify the war at Bosnia, covering it with a plenty of black humor. But I have a complain, why american people think that the war in Balcans was terrible and don´t act at the precise moment? I think this film is overrated because that hypocritical sentiment. It´s the triumph of the political correction over the really significant cinematographic values.

Slavisa M. gave it a6:
As I was born in Bosnia and I have lived here for all my life, I was extremely prowd when No Man's Land won the Oscar in 2002. But...I've only seen it later to see, how simple and well, simple it is. In consideration with Amelie Poulain it's a piece of cake, not worth of seing, the least. I do know that people think it's politically correct but..it's just plain simple. Nothing special.

Miko R. gave it a10:
An evenhanded look at the absurdity of our world, and the senseless ignorance that all of us are part of. And at the end of the movie, you may ask yourself "Is this what we have become", and for the life of it, you can't lie to yourself and say "no". Bitter moments of recognition for anyone who's ever been affiliated with the UN, or news TV.

Vee gave it a 10:
A poignant story.

Steve M. gave it a 9:
Joseph Heller redux!

Marta gave it a 9:
Its simplicity and humor are the best war definition.

No Man's Land Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corporation

No Man's Land
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corporation