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Reviews
Cirkus Columbia (2010)
Heartfelt
Cirkus Columbia is a very beautiful sort of love story. Although it doesn't start off that way with troublesome between the some of the main characters, the way the movie progresses and the ending is a very heartwarming story. The movie is set in 1991 prior to the bosnian war. It is a story of a mother and son (Lucija and Martin) living their life in a small house when the father (Divko) of Martin and the former lover of Lucija shows up with a whole lot of cash, a new young girlfriend, and the police to kick Lucija and her son out of their home. The story shows struggle and unhappiness in the beginning, but with progression shows love in a very pure form.
Cirkus Columbia is a great movie from a Bosnian perspective. The characters, writing, scenes, and even the comedy makes it a great movie. The personalities of Martin and his friend really are shown accurately like a real friend relationship because of their lowbrow humor and they fight a lot only to forgive each other later on. Divko is reminds me a lot of the typical middle aged Bosnian man. Stubborn, borish, and not too bright, Divko is a little bit crazy too considering his weird infatuation with his cat. This movie portrays the emotions and personalities of Bosnian's in close to war Bosnia very well. The story itself is very interesting and has it's funny moments. It also know when to implement drama when need be. If someone were to ask me if I knew any good films about Bosnia during the war, I'd recommend Cirkus Columbia.
In conclusion, Cirkus Columbia is a very good film. It's accurately portrays people, history, and locations very well in Bosnia. Not only is it entertaining, but it is educational. It goes to show that you don't need a primetime Hollywood budget to make a good and historically accurate film. This film resonates very well with not only the Bosnian community, but also to those who want to know more about Bosnia through film.
No Man's Land (2001)
Bosnian American Studies Student Review
No Man's Land is a comedy/war film directed by Danis Tanovic about the very complicated situation in Bosnia involving the war. While this movie is comical, we felt it could offend someone of Bosnian culture who has any past ties with the war. Something as detrimental as the Bosnian War isn't something that necessarily you wanna make a joke about. While the movie had some decent comedy, I feel it doesn't touch on the important parts of the Bosnian War.
This movie starts off with a group of Bosnian soldiers as they're crossing a field and they stop to take a rest but are quickly ambushed by a group of Serbian soldiers camped upon a hill. One of the Bosnian soldiers escapes the area and rolls in a trench. He starts to bandage himself up after he was shot in the arm and he hears 2 Serbian soldiers looking in the area and they plant a bouncing betty under a dead body incase any Bosnian soldiers try to take the body away. The Bosnian soldier eventually comes out and shoots the captain then holds the other one at gunpoint. He's a bit of a awkward man, bald and his character is comedic because of just how outlandish he is in this war. Like how he is so, quirky unlike everyone else who has such a serious tone. It's quite the contrast of personalities between the Serbian soldier and the Bosnian Soldier. Shortly after, the Bosnian soldier makes the Serbian soldier take off his clothes for humiliation and wave a white flag as he ran across the field. The Serbians see him and don't recognize him so they try to mortar strike the area and they hide in this bunker together. After this, they have a serious argument about who started the war. Shortly after the argument, the guy who was presumed dead and placed on a bouncing betty, wakes up and they immediately warn him not to move as there is a bomb underneath him. They sit there arguing some more and they don't really do anything cause they really can't. They eventually call the UN for a bomb squad and they check but they basically say they can't do anything about it. This enrages the Bosnian guy and he shoots the Serbian guy but then the UN shoots the Bosnian guy and they peace the scene. The movie ends with them laying there.
The funny parts of this movie were in the interaction between the Serbian and Bosnian soldier. While it doesn't slander the horrors of the Bosnian War, it still makes it seem so fabricated in the arguments. I have a odd feeling that they wouldn't be that civil. Besides the interaction between the soldiers, I think the representation of the UN that they had were very accurate as they were portrayed as people who were in the middle and really didn't care about what was going on between both sides. Also the brutality of the war is showed vividly, more importantly in the scene where they are mortar striking the Serbian soldier even though they didn't even check to see if he was a comrade or a enemy.