Back in 2001, I saw a Serbo-Croatian movie, No Man's Land at an “awards screening, since it had been nominated for an Oscar as Best Foreign Language Film. Also nominated that year was Amelie, that was not only wildly popular, but one of the most successful foreign language films ever. Most people knew Amelie. No one had ever heard of No Man’s Land. In fact, most people who saw Amelie absolutely loved it. (Not all, there was no gray area, some people hated it for the overly-sweet nature of the main character. But by and large, audiences loved the movie, which is why it was only of the most successful foreign language films ever.)
Every once in a while, I would come across a discussion about the Oscar office that pool people were having, trying to decide what to vote for. What tends to be traditional in most such pools is that people mark down their choices on the bulk of the awards, but "Best Foreign Language Film" is used as the tie-breaker, since most people haven't seen any of those nominated, and so it's like tossing a dart blindfolded. Although that year, a lot of people had actually seen Amelie -- or at least heard about it. And so that's what they were voting for as their tie-breaker. (In fact, to this day, 20 years later, I am absolutely certain that there are a great many people who have never seen Amelie, but know about it. And equally certain that most people have never even heard of No Man's Land. Furthermore, there was a Broadway musical a couple of years ago based on Amelie, which I saw in Los Angeles and thought was wonderful, in fact I liked it more than the movie.) However, when I was in one of those Oscar office pool conversations, I'd say, "No, pick No Man’s Land.’” Everyone would looked at me like I was absolutely nuts, because they knew that Amelie would win. But I just liked No Man's Land that much. The thing is, it was just that I liked it that much -- I explained that to those in the group that I I had seen No Man’s Land at an awards screening where the audience was made up of people who actually vote for who wins the award, and I said the reaction of those people, who actually vote for the awards, was so visceral that you could feel it in the room. And I reiterated that people should vote for it in their office pool. And they still looked at me like I was nuts. They had seen Amelie and loved it. Or knew about it and how extremely successful it was because others loved it. This is where I note that I was right -- that No Man’s Land, in fact, did win the Academy Award as Best Foreign Language Film. And a lot of people afterwards said to me, "Er, isn't that the movie you said that I should pick in my office pool to win the Oscar and beat Amelie?" Yes, I would answer, it was. Here's the oddity of all this and my love for the film. To this day, as much as I’ve praised No Man's Land, I’ve never told anyone the plot. And I won’t here. That’s because it has a twist that’s so great that to tell the plot would give that twist away, and the discovery of that twist is too brilliant. Here's how brilliant the twist is -- when I was at that original screening and saw where I thought maybe-possibly the story was going, I remember the hairs on my arm tingling because if the story did go there, it would be SOOO great. Yet I hoped that it didn’t go there, because what I also thought was, “If it doesn’t tell that story, I’m going to go home when this is over and write a story with that twist myself.” But it did go there. And it’s so smart and so clever and so well-done. I mention all this because for years it wasn’t available (at least it wasn't included for free in any streaming service). But the other day, I just checked several of the video services I subscribe to, and although No Man Land wasn't available for a very long time -- one of the added frustrations for my not talking about the plot to anyone -- it is actually available these days for streaming on Amazon Prime! If you subscribe to Amazon Prime and are interested in watching it, a caveat: make sure to watch the 2001 movie because there are others with the same title. (There's even a new one this year for Hulu.) And this one is about the Bosnian War. But don’t even read the description, out of risk of them giving anything away. The only thing I will say is that the first 10 minutes looks like it’s an ordinary war film, although a very well done one, so you might wonder what’s the big deal. Just know that it is not an ordinary war film. The direction of the story changes after those first 10 minutes, and it's extremely good. Just know, though that that change of direction is not the plot twist. That comes later. At which point, it then goes off to another level. Know, too, that if you're someone who avoids foreign language movies because you don't like reading subtitles, No Man's Land won't likely have that same hurdle for you. That's because, even though it’s a foreign language film, much of it centers around the United Nations inspection unit that's on the ground there during the war, and therefore when all the sides meet, they speak in English. So, about a third of the movie is in English. (And it even has one British actor in it who you might recognize, Simon Callow. He’s had a long, admired career. Among a great many things, he was in Shakespeare in Love as the theater manager, and in Four Weddings and a Funeral -- playing the flamboyant Scotsman for whom they had the funeral. And has done a one-man stage show about Charles Dickens’ life. In No Man’s Land, he plays one of the representatives from the U.N.) A sort of postscript to all this is that my 93-year-old aunt was looking for things to stream during the pandemic, and so I brought up No Man's Land to her last week. She'd loved foreign films for a lifetime, but at this point has put them in the back seat since she's one of those who now doesn't prefer to read subtitles if there are other films to watch. But I explained to her about the U.N. subplot and all the English, she streamed it -- and became the first person in 20 years I could actually talk about the movie to! And happily, she thought it was excellent. So, I'm off the hook with her, after pushing it so hard... Usually at this point in an article I'll embed the trailer. However, in this case, I will not be posting the trailer for No Man's Land. That's because as good as the trailer is, as solid a job as it does giving a pretty good sense of the movie, it also gives away much too much of the plot and gives away the plot twist. (I don't criticize them for it, though, since as I said, it's impossible to tell the story properly without doing so.) But it does show that the movie is not only dramatic and tragic as war is, but also absurdly funny in large parts. I should mention, too, that in addition to the Oscar, it also won best screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival. It's only an hour and 37 minutes, too, so it flies by. After all this praise, I hope it can live up to that. But I think it can. I really love the movie. And it’s been tough loving it for 20 years, but refusing to tell anyone anything about the story. For those who access Amazon Prime movies on your laptop and then hook it up to your TV with an HDMI cable, this is the link here to find it.
2 Comments
Douglass Abramson
3/18/2021 06:58:49 pm
FYI: "Leaves Prime on March 31"
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Robert Elisberg
3/19/2021 12:30:28 pm
Douglas, ACK, thanks for that. Sorry to hear it will be leaving Amazon Prime (though hopefully will be back eventually), but at least there's time for people to still see it, and I'll post that information.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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