The Subtlties of War in "No Man's Land"

The Bosnian War of 1993 is a war many have probably never heard of. I certainly have never heard of any American films to cover the Bosnian War, but No Man's Land does just that, but in a more subtle way. Instead of epic battles and a courageous protagonist, we are presented with 3 characters Cera, Ciki (Bosnian Muslims) and Nino (Bosnian Serb) who end up stuck in a trench between their two warring sides. These characters are flawed in their own right, and none of them are really the protagonist or antagonist; they are just two different sides of the war.
The director, Danis Tanovic, presents a story based around the humanity of these characters and their interactions with the press and the United Nations force. Scenes in the trench usually involve a changing of power (who wields the gun) which may metaphorically represent the changing of power in the actual war itself (Serbs gain the upperhand, then the Muslims, etc). Really, the only sympathizable character is Cera who was placed on top of a mine by Nino and his former comrade, who was killed by Ciki. As he lays upon the mine, we ponder his fate as Sergeant Marchand of the UNPROFOR arrives at the trench in order to help.
At this point, the movie begins to focus more on Marchand and the general ineptness of the UN. Even the ranking officials refuse to do anything, and it is through Marchand's own act of defiance that Cera, Ciki, and Nino receive any help whatsoever. He is the only other character who seems to show any humanity, as even the reporter Jane Livingstone seems only interested in the story of the soldiers instead of actually helping them. All of these events lead up to the resolution of the tale, and what a powerful one it was.
It seems that Nino, Ciki, and Cera may be saved as media pressure forces the UNPROFOR to come to the aid of the three. Things turn bleak when the German Mine Expert states that he cannot defuse the mine underneath Cera. Following this, Ciki kills Nino in an act of revenge for an earlier incident, and one of the young UNPROFOR guards guns down Ciki. To save face, the UNPROFOR evacuates out a "fake" Cera in order to fool the media into believing they actually rescued him. The movie ends with Cera lying desolate in the trench, his death inevitable.
-Julian

An Analysis of Underground

The movie I most recently watched was the award winning movie Underground by famed director Emir Kusturica. Let me first start out by saying that this movie had some strange moments, but I think the dark humor worked for well on the whole. I believe it was used to lend surrealism to the situations in the movie (such as the monkey getting in the tank), which almost masks the darker nature of the film. It was mentioned in a presentation on Yugoslavian film that they tend to use a darker sort of humor and maybe this was due to all of the trials and tribulations they went through.
Peter Popara ("Blacky") best represents the craziness of all the ordeals. He looks like a madman (or a young Einstein), with crazy hair and a mustache to match. At first, Marko leads the audience to believe that Blacky is more about the wealth gained from helping the Russians, but we learn later that it is Marko who leads a weapons-dealing operation in order to amass a large fortune. Blacky is so dedicated to the Russian cause that he leads an attack against, what he believes, to be a large German force with only his son for backup. For 20 years he waits for the call to action (even though the war is long over), while Marko weaves a tale of lies and lives in luxury. To further add to it, Blacky fights in the Yugoslav wars of 1992, while Marko sells weapons for his own benefit, without any care for his country. Both Marko and Blacky symbolize two different characterizations of people in Yugoslavia: those who are patriotic and those who want to capitalize on the war.
The ending of the movie somewhat reaffirms this statement as a piece of land containing the characters who were underground breaks off and floats away. Pavle Levi states that this is representative of "the pure, uncompromised Yugoslav Ideal," which is an antithesis to the scenes of the underground. Ivan's final monolouge reaffirms this as he states the they "will with pain, sorrow, and joy...remember our country...", thus ending the Yugoslav Ideal.
-Julian

Some more info!

If anyone out there is reading this that isn't my English 1102 teacher, you are probably wondering why I am critiquing specific movies or my motives behind it.
Well, I am enrolled in an English 1102 at the Georgia Institute of Technology (go Jackets!) and the subject of focus is on international cinema and how it reflects on globalization and the history of its producing nation.
The films I critique are all the films we are required to view by our teacher. They run the gamut of countries (China, Iran, former-Yugoslavia, South Korea, etc), but, due to the breadth of the topic, certain countries were left out, most notably those on the African continent.
I hope you all enjoy it and I will attempt to post critiques of films I watch outside of class, but most of those will be of the American or Japanese varieties :P
-Julian

My Sassy Girl, A Short Analysis

My Sassy Girl was an entertaining film that could best be described as a romantic comedy or a melodrama. Most of the humor was provided by the reversal of traditional South Korean roles, i.e. The Girl was bossing around Gyun-woo, without any respect to his seniority. Gyun-woo seems to resent his position, but after a time, he accepts his more subservient position, out of love and his desire to "cure" her sorrow. Towards the end of the film, the girl shows that deep down she is a traditional girl, who has just fallen on hard times. In one article discussing the advent of trans-cinema and rise of South Korean feminism, the author mentions the postmodern Korea and how it references the pre-modern. Examples include calling one group of people the Orange Tribe and another the Yata Tribe. The connotation of a tribe dates back to feudal Korea, while the people belonging to these tribes are anything but. Thus, the postmodern is referencing the pre-modern.
How this relates to the movie though, is best represented by the girl who is very postmodern and feministic (in that she is a strong female character), but deep down she is very pre-modern. This was probably the director's choice to show a strong, female lead, but to not embrace the concept wholeheartedly. Possibly, this represents South Korea's influx of feminists and the country's allowing and then subsequently banning feminist film festivals. The country seems to be trying cope with the feminists, but without giving up the traditional heritage, which seems to lead to the feminists (and other minorities such as the homosexuals, youth culture, etc) being snuffed out in the end.
It is also interesting to note that the girl's house is much more modern looking than Gyun-woo's. While Gyun-woo's home contains the hardwood floor and paper walls, the girl's house has a wrought iron fence overrun with some-kind of vine and the interior of her house seems much more Western. Again, this could be a subtle hint at the changing and Westernizing of Korea.
Hmm...seems I wrote a little more than the required 250 words, but I feel this movie, more than others I have seen shows how a country is changing and adapting in various ways.
-Julian

First Post Evar!

First post ever on a blog...what a momentous occasion!
A critique for My Sassy Girl will be up within the next few days, which was a very interesting take on the romantic comedy genre.
-Julian