Directed By: Danis Tanovic
Written By: Danis Tanovic
Main Cast: Branko Duric, Rene Bitorajac, Filip Sovagovic, Georges Siatidis, Katrin Cartlidge
Click here to view the trailer
IT ALL WENT SOUTH WHEN WE LEFT THE TRENCH
There are currently eleven movies streaming on Netflix that I have scheduled to watch during this chunk of 100 films; this is one of them. I figured I'd better get cracking on some of them, before Netflix starts yanking them and I end up having to have them delivered to the house.
The film takes place in the middle of the Bosnian War, between the Republic of Bosnia and Bosnian Serb's. During a foggy night, a group of Bosnian soldiers get lost while traveling through enemy territory. When sunrise comes, the following morning, they are quickly spotted and attacked by the Serbian Front - all are thought dead. However, Ciki (Duric) has received only a bullet wound in his left shoulder. When he regains consciousness, he finds himself in a trench, his gun intact and his best friend, Cera (Sovagovic), seemingly dead. Meanwhile, at the Serbian Front, decisions are made to send in two soldiers to investigate the trench and make sure all is well. A veteran soldier is chosen, along with a new recruit. Upon arrival, Ciki hides to avoid being noticed. While there, the two Serb's activate a bouncing mine (a land mine that doesn't go off when stepped on, but rather when the weight is removed) and place the body of Cera on top of it. Now, if Cera's allies try to remove his body, they will all be blown to bits. Eventually Ciki ducks out and fires at both of them, killing the veteran and wounding the newbie, Nino (Bitorajac). With both sides keeping eyes peeled on the trench, the two enemies are now trapped together. To make things more interesting, Cera wakes up, revealing that he isn't dead, but unable to move due to the mine.
This one had all the potential in the world, but for some reason, I just didn't take to it as well as I thought I would've. In fact, I'll tell you where it went downhill. It all went south when we left the trench! I realize that when Danis Tanovic accepted his Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, he dedicated it to his country, so obviously he had something to say with this film and good for him for getting to say it and say it with such acceptance. However, if this had been treated like a stage play, with the three characters (two members of the Republic of Bosnia's Armed Forces and one Bosnian Serb) verbally duking it out in the trenches, it would have been gold for this viewer. When we started pulling characters from the U.N. into it and the media, it slowly started to fall down my ratings scale. Most of you know that I don't take politics with my films, so it's no surprise that that's the point where I started caring less about this movie.
SPOILER ALERT!
I can't say that it was awful though. For the most part, we did keep the action in the trench and the actors more than pulled their weight, carrying the ball and turning in fine performances. The cinematography wasn't anything to write home about, but remember, I just got done seeing "Yi Yi", so pretty much everything was going to look pale in comparison. Also, this film has ONE OF the most heart wrenching final scenes in recent memory, as a shot of Cera, still lying on the mine, informed that he cannot be moved, takes us to the credits, as we pan away from him, from above. It's a shot that I'll never forget and probably the one shot that I'll remember this film for.
RATING: 6.5/10 We'll keep it short again for this one. It's one that I can't fully recommend, but one that is worth a look, especially if you like war and politics with your films. I, for one, don't care for either.
MOVIES WATCHED: 429
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 572
April 21, 2012 6:52pm
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