DVD Reviews: No Man's Land (Serbo/Croatian Language Film)

This brilliant award winning film delves into the conflict that took place during the Serbian/Bosnian War. A Bosnian relief party makes their way to the front lines during the night in heavy fog and are ambushed. In the confusion all are killed except for one soldier Ciki and a wounded comrade, an explosion propels them into a trench and it's in this area that they seek refuge from the chaos.

Serbian forces learn of the Bosnians in the trench and send two of their own there to investigate. A brief firefight ensues and what we then have is a tense standoff between the one Serb remaining and the two Bosnians, one of whom is lying on top of a bouncing betty, a land mine that springs into the air when triggered before detonating.

Add into the mix the United Nations UNPROFOR that has been called to arbitrate the retrieval of the soldiers in the trench and then the media circus that eventuates when they learn of this unique situation and you will see the strength of this fabulous script. Tightly written with some great acting from the lead actors, No Man's Land is a great film that demands your attention and respect.

Of course the nice thing about this title is that it has also been transferred over without a hitch. The whole kit and kaboodle looks and sounds great as far as I was concerned. In fact that only area of disappointment for me was the the very sparse DVD extras that were included on the disc. It would have been great to have a audio commentary and some interviews on this disc to let us know where the director and actors were when making this film, the subject matter of which would have touched a raw nerve or two back home when released.

Instead we are presented with a very sparse menu and some advertisements for Madman, which while always cool, are not really a feature of the disc at all.

This disc however for it's fantastic story, rates it well into the must own category for foreign film.