I hate that the Oscars has a “best foreign language film” category. It’s just so totally unnecessary. A film is a film is a film. A good film is better than a bad film. It is inconsequential what language a film is in, and it’s a depressing thing that the film output from the entire non-english speaking rest of the world gets summed up into a category with one winner, and it’s even more depressing that that winner will just not be seen by many people. In 2001, there was a big exception. One foreign language film made a massive splash, and is still mentioned to this day as a real classic. That film was Amelie, and in the Oscars, Amelie was beaten by “No Man’s Land”, which is largely ignored by everyone. But I’m delighted to say that I think they got this right. Amelie was an excellent film, and yet so was this. This is one of the sharpest views on the futility of war that I’ve ever seen.
It takes place like a stage play (which I believe it was), nearly all contained in the claustrophobic atmosphere of a trench in no man’s land, between opposing sides taking part in the Bosnian war between the Bosniaks and the Bosnian Serbs. Due to bad weather and a series of events, two soldiers, one from each side, end up in the same trench, along with several dead ones. One of the dead soldiers, having had a booby trap mine placed under his body to kill any comrades that come to clear up the bodies, makes things more complicated by not actually being dead and merely unconscious. He is stopped from moving as that would kill him and everyone else. The other two undergo some kind of uneasy truce while sorting out what is best to do. The absurdity of war is shown in that they know some of the same people, and would probably find things they agreed on if they weren’t sworn to kill each other. The United Nations get involved, and TV crews, and it just all comes together so cleverly, so sadly, and yet so humorously, that I would recommend it to anyone to see. It’s clever, it’s human, and it’s really quite an excellent film.
Biffer on Film 