Snow Flicks: “No Man’s Land”

  Branko Djuric, Filip
Sovagovic and Rene Bitorajac star in
“No Man’s Land,” a film about the war in
Bosnia.

By Kelsey McConnell
Daily Bruin Contributor

Sitting defiantly hunched in a plush, black chair, film
writer/director Danis Tanovic swatted at the absurdity of war and
the difficulty of making a good movie as if he was a verbal
Godzilla.

Tanovic is a Bosnia-Herzegovina native and a highly acclaimed
documentary filmmaker. His documentaries attempt to capture the
effect of the Bosnian war on people directly and indirectly
involved with the fighting.

His newest endeavor is a much different piece of work. First of
all, it’s fiction.

“Before I sit to write I have to think for months, but I
wrote this script in 14 days, I knew what I wanted,” Tanovic
said.

After breezing through the writing process, Tanovic experienced
similar ease in getting his script made into a film.

“It’s almost an unbelievable story,” he said.
“I wrote the script. I went to a production house I thought
could use a good script and in one day I had five producers. The
hardest part about making this film were the weather conditions. It
rained 10 out of the 36 days of shooting.”

Once the storms had cleared, Tanovic rushed “No
Man’s Land” to Cannes, finishing the film two days
after the festival had started. The Cannes Film Festival
didn’t mind the print still being wet, awarding Tanovic Best
Screenplay honors.

From Cannes, Tanovic traveled extensively with his movie,
accumulating awards and rave reviews throughout the world. Tanovic
realizes that a truly good movie will be equally well-received by
any audience.

“I’m not going to be modest and shy,” Tanovic
said. “I’ve made a good film and it’s been
confirmed all around the world. I was astonished to see Japanese
people laugh where French people laugh and in the same places where
Americans laughed. And my intended audience is all of
them.”

His film shows Bosnia ravaged by the multi-faceted destruction
of war, but even after detente Bosnia is still living a
precariously balanced existence.

When asked what things are like today, Tanovic gave a haunting
answer: Bosnia today is like the man on the bomb in “No
Man’s Land.” They both know that if they move, they
will be torn apart by an unavoidable barrage of screaming, hot
metal.

Part of the reason for this dormant volatility, said Tanovic, is
the irresolution of war crimes punishment.

“Imagine that the people who helped bin Laden are walking
free around New York. That’s what you have in
Sarajevo,” he said. “You have war criminals who were
shooting and now come back to the city and ask to get their
apartments back and they expel the widows of men they killed. They
did anything to stop the war, they equalized everyone, the
aggressor and the victim, and said, “˜you should all live
together nicely.’ But it doesn’t work that
way.”

American previews make his film out to be a comedy. Though
Tanovic points out that it’s main thrust is the tragic
absurdity of war, he doesn’t refute that it is funny.

“I like to say that this is a serious film with a good
sense of humor,” he confirms. “I know people who have
survived the war and are completely desperate and I survived the
war I decided to make the best of it. I tried to learn the lesson
and maybe to show the world what I learned. We (Bosnians) have
every reason to have a good sense of humor. It’s a way to
survive.”

When confronted with his expectations of profit, the director
said passionately, “you’re making movies for two
fucking reasons: (A) You have something to say, (B) to entertain
people. I did find a (C): to make money. Well go to Wall Street to
make money you don’t make movies for money or because
it’s cool or because you’re going to have hot
chicks.”

Tanovic has a heavy presence, but also, a healthy sense of
humor.

Tanovic’s vision of a good filmmaker is concise and much
more exultary than his actual opinion of filmmakers. For Tanovic,
who’s self-projected back story is one of a child raised not
by war but by art, making movies is necessarily a difficult
task.

“I think being a film director is one of the most complex
jobs in the world. You have to be a writer, you have to be a
politician, you have to be psychologist, you have to be a daddy to
some of the actors,” he said. “You have to know how to
film, you have to know how to cut. It’s so complex and every
fucking person thinks they can make a film. I don’t try to do
heart surgery. I’ve been studying this fucking thing for 10
years and being film director isn’t just about walking a red
carpet. It’s not even a job, it’s a way of
living.”

Tanovic thinks himself a great filmmaker and he is running low
on people who disagree with him.

FILM: “No Man’s Land” opens
in theaters Dec. 7.