No Man's Land

Brilliant in its unpretentious simplicity, this small-scale battlefield farce speaks volumes about the absurdities of modern ethnic conflicts in the age of ever-present but under-effective U.N. peacekeepers--and it does so without the soapbox speeches, overblown battle sequences and metaphorical violin soundtracks of self-important Hollywood war movies. Bosnian writer-director Danis Tanovic boils down the ironic truths of centuries-old enmity in his homeland and presents them in a meaningfully funny story about two soldiers from opposite sides of the war, trapped together between enemy lines in an abandoned trench. A winner in the entertaining serio-comic, anti-war tradition of Dr. Strangelove and Catch-22, this Oscar-nominated film is definitely recommended. (R. Blackwelder)