2001 Winner, No Man's Land

No Man’s Land

Director: Danis Tanović

Distributed by: United Artists

Released: September 2001

Countries:  Bosnia--Herzegovina (also Slovenia, Italy, France, Belgium, and the UK)

One of the most interesting aspects of the American Civil War is the shared heritage and culture of the two enemies.  Guys who went to West Point and fought in the Mexican War together, men who often thought of each other as brothers, were opposing officers of the Union and the Confederacy.  In the ranks, there are stories of Rebels and Yankees singing Christmas hymns together and exchanging tobacco and coffee during lulls in the war.  The war was the war, but it seemed like deep down, they were all Americans.

The Bosnian War of the 90’s was not that war.  The history of the region region is complicated, but it breaks down to the Bosniaks hating the Serbs and the Serbs hating the Bosniaks.  The Serbs under Milosevic were especially brutal in this war, but neither side was innocent of war crimes.  It is this hateful atmosphere that is the backdrop for No Man’s Land.

At war in the trenches

Essentially, this film takes place in one setting—a trench in between the fronts of the Bosniaks and the Serbs, a “no man’s land,” if you will.  In the fog of war, a Bosniak and a Serb get caught in the trench together, knowing that with the confusion taking place, their own people might shoot at them if they try to leave.  There are Serbian land mines all over the place as well.   So this Bosniak--we’ll call him Oscar (because I would never be able to pronounce or spell his real name)--and this Serb--who we’ll call Felix--are stuck and must learn to work together or die for sure.  The question is, can two opposing men share a trench together without driving each other crazy?

Simon Callow: A Room with a View

Add to the mix the fact that the Serbs had taken one of Oscar’s Bosniak dead buddies and stuck him on a land mine as a booby trap and you have a real awkward situation on your hands.  Now, the reveal that the guy on the booby trap isn’t really dead—what next?!

As I watched this movie, I really thought maybe Oscar and Felix would start finding that, gosh, you know, deep down we’re all human beings living on the same rock, and we had better all learn to get along or else.  At one point during a conversation, it turns out that Felix’s wife was once in a bowling league with Oscar’s sister-in-law (or something like that): really an “Isn’t it a small world?” moment.  Maybe things will work out?  Adding to the farce is when the UN steps in to help.  Simon Callow, who you may remember from a supporting role in 1985’s A Room With a View (okay, maybe not—he’s also the villain in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls) plays a UN observer who does about as much good as the UN ever does—none.  All in all it is a farce.

Simon Callow: Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls.  Now do you know who I mean?

Truth be told, for awhile I wasn’t sure if this was intended to be a comedy or a drama.  It certainly has the feel of a M*A*S*H or even a Dr. Strangelove, sort of a zany satire on war.  Closer in tone, perhaps, is Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory from 1957, giving us a sort of philosophical morality play.   

Ultimately, there isn’t anything funny going on here.  This is war, and Serbs and Bosniaks don’t like each other, period.  And this war was a particularly ugly one, with genocide and rapes and all sort of nasty stuff going on.  Without giving the ending away, there are no Christmas carols sung, nor tobacco or coffee exchanged between these guys.  The war was the war.

The Title:  Ničija zemlja.  That’s Bosnian. 

The Culture:  Interesting that this movie came out in September 2001.  The Bosnian war dominated the news in the late 90’s and the treaty to end the war was hashed out at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.  The U.S. was a main player in ending this war, and thereby, ending the war crimes against the Bosnian Muslims.  This film, if nothing else, reminds us of the destruction of that war.

Agenda Danger:  Written and directed by a Bosnian, I thought this played right down the middle, with everyone having a mix of humanity and stupidity.  Except the UN, who are portrayed as useless, at least in this instance.

Best Picture that year:  A Beautiful Mind.

Rating:  Worth a look if you like war movies, especially the anti-war kind.

2002 Winner, Nowhere in Africa

Nowhere in Africa

Director:  Caroline Link

Distributed by:  Zeitgeist Films

Released:  November 2002

Country:  Germany

A fish-out-water movie is generally a comedy in which the main character is taken out of his comfortable surroundings and plucked into a situation that baffles and frustrates him, usually ending with the hero realizing he fits in more than he thought.  Crocodille Dundee comes to mind:  Outback nature boy goes to New York City and takes 90 minutes or so to get used to it.  But these type of films don’t have to be comedies.  In Gran Torino, for instance, Clint Eastwood, a fairly racist and closed-minded curmudgeon (“Get off my lawn!”), after spending time with his Hmong neighbors, utters, “Son of a bitch. I've got more in common with these goddamned gooks than my own spoiled-rotten family.”

Fish out of water

Nowhere in Africa is essentially a non-comedic fish-out-of-water story.  The Redlich family are well-to-do Jews living in 1938 Germany.  Walter, the father, knows to get out while the getting is good—he moves to Kenya, of all places, and gets a job farming, and soon sends for his wife and daughter.  His wife Jettel enjoys it where she is and doesn’t really want to leave; the daughter, Regina, is more game.  The fish in this story is really Jettel, who at first tries to put on a brave face living in the Dark Continent.  But it doesn’t take very long before she takes a look and smell around the place and realizes the days of crisp apple strudels and schnitzel with noodles are over.  And she’s not happy about it, either.

Owuor and Regina

Regina makes friends with Owuor, the cook, who is a native Kenyan.  Some of the bright moments of this film involve this odd couple’s friendship, and his loyalty to the Redlich family.  Owuor is about as good a friend as the Redlichs could hope for, but Jettel can’t see past the fact that he’s African.

This film is rather epic in scope—we see Regina at three different ages as she grows up during World War II.  An amusing scene involves Regina’s stay at a British boarding school, preceded by a touching one in which Regina says goodbye to a native school-age friend she made in Kenya.   

Jettel:  "Willkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome, C'mon in!"

But Jettel’s story is the centerpiece here.  Jettel is pretty, tough, and will do what she has to in order to survive this ordeal.  And when I say do what she has to, I mean she is prepared to use her feminine assets to survive and earn the movie its R-rating.  Juliane Köhler (who played Eva Braun in the Hitler-in-the-bunker film from 2004, Downfall), is terrific in the role.  To me, the best performances in film involve a character who changes subtly from the beginning to the end of the story—like Pacino’s Michael Corleone, changing from innocent war veteran to mafia kingpin in The Godfather, so that at the end of the movie he almost seems like a different character than at the film's start. Or perhaps a better example is Tom Cruise in Rainman, gradually transforming from selfish egoist to caring brother.  This is that kind of performance.  Watching Jettel, born with a silver spoon in her mouth, adjust to living out of her German water is what makes this movie so enjoyable.

The Nazis were rude

The Title:  Nirgendwo in Afrika.  They are, after all, trying to hide there.

The Culture:  Ever wondered what 1940 Central Africa was like?  Here you go.

Agenda Danger:  The Nazis get a lot of bad portrayals in the Best Foreign Films.  But as Mel Brooks once opined, they were very rude, so they kind of did it to themselves.

Best Picture that year:  Chicago

Rating:  8 out of 10 fishes

2003 Winner, The Barbarian Invasions

The Barbarian Invasions

Director:  Danys Arcand

Distributed by:  Miramax Films

Released:  May 2003

Country:  Canada

Maybe because this movie is a sequel, and the second of a trilogy, I just didn’t connect with this film.  The first film in the series, The Decline of the American Empire, was made in 1986, so the filmmakers took their sweet time in getting the old gang back together for another go at it.  Now you would think that with title words like “Empire” and “Barbarian Invasions” maybe you would be sitting down to some middle-earth epic with orcs or ewoks or possibly a cameo by Arnold Schwarzenegger.  You would think wrong.  The Barbarian Invasions is about a bunch of French Canadian middle-aged ex-hippies smoking doobies and pontificating about the bourgeois.  Talk about false advertising.

An Orc invasion would have livened this up a bit

The story is about Rémy, an older ex-professor and socialist who is stuck in a hospital with terminal cancer.  His son Sébastien is some bigshot business-type, pretty much the personification of what his dear old papa hates.  Sébastien loves his dad and wants to do what he can for him to ease his pain, but this is Canada, not Iowa, so getting timely healthcare isn’t really all that easy.  Besides gathering all of Rémy’s aging hipster pals in the hospital to cheer him up, Sébastien drives his dad into pre-Obamacare Vermont to get some real meds.

The cast:  French Canadian ex-hippies

But the real “plot” is with the old folks hanging out, getting high, exchanging glory stories of free sex and Marxism.  In other words, the whole thing gets dull in a hurry.  Imagine The Big Chill, add 20 years and 20 pounds to everyone, and have them speak French.  In addition to that, and I could be wrong about this, I think the filmmakers wanted us to think some of this was funny.  I found the whole thing a bore with very little to recommend it.  I couldn’t wait for Rémy, and the movie, to end.

Slightly younger, thinner ex-hippies

The Title: Les Invasions barbares.  I have no idea how this relates to the movie, but the title has to do with a post-911 thing.  See, when the Barbarians invaded Rome, it was the beginning of the end of a great empire.  So I guess the filmmakers equate al Qaida with Angles and Saxons and Goths?  And what does this have to do with Rémy's imminent demise?  Je ne sais pas.  Makes no sense to me.

The Culture:  Other than some slight commentary on the health care system, this could have happened anywhere there is political freedom enough for ex-hippies to decry their government.

Agenda Danger:  Again, there is an oblique swipe at Canadian health care, but most of the politics is tame generational conflict.  Like, remember le peace, la love, and le dope, man?

Best Picture that year:  Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.  Real invasions and real barbarians. Sort of.

Rating:  Zzzzzzzzzzzzz