# No Man's Land (2001 film)
**No Man's Land** (*Ničija zemlja*) is a 2001 war satire directed and written by Danis Tanović, in which a Bosnian soldier and a Serb soldier are trapped together in a trench between enemy lines during the [Bosnian War](https://www.edgepedia.org/bosnian-war), while a wounded comrade lies on a spring-loaded mine that will explode if he moves. The film won Best Screenplay at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2002 ceremony.[1](https://fest.afi.com/2001/international-competition-2001/no-mans-land/) • [2](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2002)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and writer | Danis Tanović, a Bosnian first-time feature filmmaker[3](https://filmquarterly.org/2006/09/01/no-mans-land/) |
| Original title | *Ničija zemlja* (Bosnian/Serbian) |
| Premiere | 12 May 2001, in competition at the 54th Festival de Cannes[4](https://bsf.si/en/movie/nicija-zemlja/) |
| Running time | 98 minutes[4](https://bsf.si/en/movie/nicija-zemlja/) |
| Production countries | Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belgium, France, Italy, Slovenia, United Kingdom[4](https://bsf.si/en/movie/nicija-zemlja/) |
| Major awards | Best Screenplay, 2001 Cannes Film Festival; Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, 2002[1](https://fest.afi.com/2001/international-competition-2001/no-mans-land/) • [2](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2002) |
| Critical scores | Metacritic 84/100 from 29 reviews; Rotten Tomatoes 93% from 97 reviews[5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/no-mans-land/) • [6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/no_mans_land) |
## Spoilers
### Plot and premise
The story is set in [Bosnia and Herzegovina](https://www.edgepedia.org/bosnia-and-herzegovina) in 1993, during the heaviest fighting of the war. A Bosnian patrol becomes lost in battlefield fog between the lines; when the fog clears, the survivors find themselves facing a Serbian machine-gun position 50 yards away.[7](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2001/12/21/no-mans-land-trenchant-warfare/5f9fd39c-ad33-4283-b685-84e72ca209a6/) The Bosnian soldier Čiki (Branko Đurić) takes refuge in an abandoned trench. Serbs come to inspect it, and Čiki watches as they place one of his dead comrades on a land mine as a booby trap.[8](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/no-mans-land-2001) A Serb soldier, Nino (Rene Bitorajac), is sent to investigate, and the two men end up facing each other in the trench: if either leaves, the other's side will kill him.[7](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2001/12/21/no-mans-land-trenchant-warfare/5f9fd39c-ad33-4283-b685-84e72ca209a6/)
A third man, the wounded Bosnian soldier Cera (Filip Šovagović), lies on the trench floor with a spring-loaded bomb set to explode beneath him if he moves.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/no_mans_land) French peacekeepers attempt to get the men out, but their radio traffic is overheard by television reporters, and the incident grows into an international drama in which each participant, from UN commanders to journalists, tries to advance his own standing.[7](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2001/12/21/no-mans-land-trenchant-warfare/5f9fd39c-ad33-4283-b685-84e72ca209a6/) [Simon Callow](https://www.edgepedia.org/simon-callow) plays a UN officer named Soft, and Katrin Cartlidge plays the war correspondent Jane Livingstone.[8](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/no-mans-land-2001) • [9](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/no-mans-land-film-review-by-angus-wolfe-murray)
## Themes and style
Tanović uses the trench as a microcosm of the civil war that tore apart [Yugoslavia](https://www.edgepedia.org/yugoslavia), combining inexorable fatalism with black humor and offering no easy way out.[1](https://fest.afi.com/2001/international-competition-2001/no-mans-land/) Time Out credited the film's success to its taut, witty script mounting a darkly comic but suspenseful satirical attack on the absurdity of war, and noted that it is even-handed between the sides.[10](https://www.timeout.com/movies/no-mans-land) The Washington Post's Stephen Hunter described it as bleak and acerbic, rejecting the sentimental cliché of enemy soldiers bonding and instead making rude noises about the United Nations Peacekeeping Forces and what he called the Heroic Media.[7](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2001/12/21/no-mans-land-trenchant-warfare/5f9fd39c-ad33-4283-b685-84e72ca209a6/)
A recurring device is language itself. The New York Times critic Stephen Holden observed that a dark running joke is that everyone seems to speak a different language and has trouble communicating, a continual struggle that becomes a metaphor for the war.[11](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0283509/criticreviews/) Roger Ebert compared the film to *Catch-22*, *MASH*, and *Waiting for Godot*, noting that the characters are stuck in the middle of a process where movement would solve everything but waiting is intolerable.[8](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/no-mans-land-2001)
The scholar Amy Corbin, writing in *Film Quarterly*, argued that the film stands out for its indictment of the intertwined nature of war, global power, and media. Its point of view is not anchored in any one national perspective, and it includes no U.S. protagonist, de-emphasizing the American role in global power relations. In the finale, the UN commander flies in by helicopter to cast himself and his organization as heroes in front of the cameras by bringing a mine expert.[3](https://filmquarterly.org/2006/09/01/no-mans-land/)
## Production
Tanović was born in 1969 in Zenica. After graduating from film school in Belgium he worked on documentaries about the effects of the Bosnian war, and he filmed 300 hours of front-line footage at Sarajevo that has been used in international news reports; his years as a front-line cameraman in the Bosnian army contribute to the film's realistic look.[12](https://bhfilm.ba/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/BH.FILM-2012-2013.pdf) • [13](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-dec-20-wk-daswani20-story.html) • [1](https://fest.afi.com/2001/international-competition-2001/no-mans-land/) Within days of pitching the project to the French-based Noé Productions in the fall of 1999, he had a deal and several co-production partners lined up.[13](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-dec-20-wk-daswani20-story.html)
The film was produced in October 2000 and released in the United States in December 2001, in time for the Academy Awards.[3](https://filmquarterly.org/2006/09/01/no-mans-land/) It was filmed in Italy and Slovenia because filming in Bosnia was dangerous.[14](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/15027570.2022.2064951) The Slovenian film database lists a budget estimate of 1,947,189.00 EUR, including 335,000.00 EUR in Eurimages co-production funding from the [Council of Europe](https://www.edgepedia.org/council-of-europe);[4](https://bsf.si/en/movie/nicija-zemlja/) a scholarly account gives the production cost as about $1 million.[14](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/15027570.2022.2064951) Walther Vanden Ende was the director of photography and Francesca Calvelli the editor.[3](https://filmquarterly.org/2006/09/01/no-mans-land/)
## Reception and legacy
The film premiered in competition at Cannes on 12 May 2001 and won Best Screenplay there.[4](https://bsf.si/en/movie/nicija-zemlja/) • [1](https://fest.afi.com/2001/international-competition-2001/no-mans-land/) It went on to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 74th Academy Awards on 24 March 2002, beating *Amélie* among others.[2](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2002) • [9](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/no-mans-land-film-review-by-angus-wolfe-murray) Metacritic recorded a metascore of 84 from 29 critic reviews, in the site's "universal acclaim" band, and Rotten Tomatoes lists a 93% Tomatometer from 97 reviews with the critics' consensus "Bleak and darkly humorous, No Man's Land vividly illustrates the absurdity of war."[5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/no-mans-land/) • [6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/no_mans_land)
Critics singled out the performances and the script. Michael Wilmington of the *Chicago Tribune* called it a ferociously intelligent portrait of the Bosnian War; Peter Travers of *Rolling Stone* described it as fierce, funny, and finally devastating.[11](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0283509/criticreviews/) Dissenting reviews found the anti-war commentary obvious: Slant Magazine's Ed Gonzalez judged the war-is-futile message too obvious and politically shallow, while Empire found some characters caricatured and passages bombastic.[15](https://film.one/film/no-mans-land/reviews)
The film's Oscar win is broadly considered an important landmark for post-Yugoslav cinema in general and Bosnian cinema in particular, and its acclaim boosted a series of multiple award-winning Bosnian films.[16](https://uplopen.com/books/11523/files/4f857b6c-5d45-4469-a7c7-14b8bcfee141.pdf)
## References
1. [No Man's Land, AFI FEST 2001 catalog entry](https://fest.afi.com/2001/international-competition-2001/no-mans-land/)
2. [The 74th Academy Awards (2002), Oscars.org](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2002)
3. [Amy Corbin, "No Man's Land," Film Quarterly, Autumn 2006](https://filmquarterly.org/2006/09/01/no-mans-land/)
4. [Ničija zemlja (2001), Slovenian Film Database (BSF)](https://bsf.si/en/movie/nicija-zemlja/)
5. [No Man's Land Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/no-mans-land/)
6. [No Man's Land, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/no_mans_land)
7. [Stephen Hunter, "'No Man's Land': Trenchant Warfare," The Washington Post, December 20, 2001](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2001/12/21/no-mans-land-trenchant-warfare/5f9fd39c-ad33-4283-b685-84e72ca209a6/)
8. [Roger Ebert, "No Man's Land," December 21, 2001](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/no-mans-land-2001)
9. [Eye for Film review of No Man's Land](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/no-mans-land-film-review-by-angus-wolfe-murray)
10. [No Man's Land, Time Out film review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/no-mans-land)
11. [No Man's Land (2001) Metacritic reviews, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0283509/criticreviews/)
12. [Udruženje filmskih radnika u BiH, BH Film 2012–2013](https://bhfilm.ba/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/BH.FILM-2012-2013.pdf)
13. ["Seeing Dark Humor in War," Los Angeles Times, December 20, 2001](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-dec-20-wk-daswani20-story.html)
14. ["Reporting, Reflecting, Participating: Media Intervention in the Balkan War," peace and conflict studies journal, 2022](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/15027570.2022.2064951)
15. [No Man's Land (2001) critics' reviews, Fi1m](https://film.one/film/no-mans-land/reviews)
16. [Introduction, book chapter on post-Yugoslav cinema, UPL](https://uplopen.com/books/11523/files/4f857b6c-5d45-4469-a7c7-14b8bcfee141.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Black comedy and satire films › Released 1998 to 2024*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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