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No Man`s Land beats Lagaan to the Oscar
Aamir Khan`s Lagaan lost out to the Bosnian film No Man`s Land in the Best Foreign Language Oscar category on Sunday evening in Los Angeles.
Aamir Khan`s Lagaan lost out to the Bosnian film No Man`s Land in the Best Foreign Language Oscar category on Sunday evening in Los Angeles.
Putting up a brave face despite the disappointment, the Lagaan team, represented by Aamir and director Ashutosh Gowarikar, applauded as Danis Tanovic went up the stage to collect the award, the first for Bosnia and Herzegovena at the Oscars.
Produced by Noe Productions, the film had also won the Best Foreign Film Golden Globe and a Special Jury prize at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. The Bosnian film upset the favourite for the award, the French film Amelie directed by Jean Pierre Jeunet and the much publicised Lagaan, the third Indian film to come this close to winning the Golden Knight trophy.
The other two films in the fray were an Argentinian entry Son of the Bride, directed by Juan Jose Campanella, and Elling from Norway, a story of two former mental patients trying to adjust to life outside the hospital.
No Man`s Land is a tragedy laced with black comedy about the Bosnian war. The film, directed and written by Danis Tanovic, tells of three soldiers -- two Bosnian and one Serbian -- trapped in an open trench during the Bosnian war, with one of them lying on a mine that will explode if he is removed. At turns comic and brutal, the film ends on a powerful note of despair. Earlier this year it won the Golden Globe for foreign film.
For director Danis Tanovic, who once ran the Bosnian army`s film archive, the economics of the project helped give the film its dramatic shape: the central action all takes place in the desolation of a single trench with the green rolling hills around the war zone and blue skies providing a counterpoint.
"I call it Bosnian minimalism," said Tanovic. "I was somehow thinking of the Roman comedies where it all happens in the square." To persuade producers he could shoot a war movie with a bare-bones budget, Tanovic used just one tank and one helicopter in the action.
Bureau Report
Produced by Noe Productions, the film had also won the Best Foreign Film Golden Globe and a Special Jury prize at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. The Bosnian film upset the favourite for the award, the French film Amelie directed by Jean Pierre Jeunet and the much publicised Lagaan, the third Indian film to come this close to winning the Golden Knight trophy.
The other two films in the fray were an Argentinian entry Son of the Bride, directed by Juan Jose Campanella, and Elling from Norway, a story of two former mental patients trying to adjust to life outside the hospital.
No Man`s Land is a tragedy laced with black comedy about the Bosnian war. The film, directed and written by Danis Tanovic, tells of three soldiers -- two Bosnian and one Serbian -- trapped in an open trench during the Bosnian war, with one of them lying on a mine that will explode if he is removed. At turns comic and brutal, the film ends on a powerful note of despair. Earlier this year it won the Golden Globe for foreign film.
For director Danis Tanovic, who once ran the Bosnian army`s film archive, the economics of the project helped give the film its dramatic shape: the central action all takes place in the desolation of a single trench with the green rolling hills around the war zone and blue skies providing a counterpoint.
"I call it Bosnian minimalism," said Tanovic. "I was somehow thinking of the Roman comedies where it all happens in the square." To persuade producers he could shoot a war movie with a bare-bones budget, Tanovic used just one tank and one helicopter in the action.
Bureau Report