The scene of Aleksander looking back to when he photographed a man shoot another man reminded me of Kevin Carters picture seen above.
Kevin Carter “I am depressed … without phone … money for rent … money for child support … money for debts … money!!! … I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings and corpses and anger and pain … of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen, often police, of killer executioners … I have gone to join Ken if I am that lucky.”
Bosnian film-writer Danis Tanovic (movie, No Man’s Land) and Macedonian film-writer Milcho Manchevski (movie, Before the Rain) are portraying different perspectives about the neutrality of outsiders based on the following quotes from their movies;
“Neutrality does not exist in the face of murder. Doing nothing to stop it is, in fact, choosing. It is not being neutral.” -Sergeant Marchand, as quoted by British reporter Jane Livingstone (No Man’s Land)
“I took sides. My camera killed a man.” -Aleksander Kirkov (Before the Rain)
But once looked at both of the movies as a whole, it could be seen that the film-writers are sending similar messages.
Tanovic in his film shows the anger and frustration he has towards the United Nations and the media. The UNIPROFOR of United Nations peacekeepers, are represented as having neutral choice, due to this they do not join in any violent action that is going on. But the film-maker shows this is a false ideology, because being in a state like that forces you to take a side whether you state neutrality or not.
Two Bosnian soldiers where one is laying on a mine, and one Serbian soldier is tapped inside a trench. Here none of them leave because Ciki wants to save his friend Cera from the mine he is laying on, and Nino (Serbian soldier) is forced to stay by Ciki or else he will kill him. Colonel Soft (ironic), who is in Charge on UNIPROFOR asks his men, the peace keepers to stay out of the trench and not to do anything, until an English reporter, Michel, finds out about the situation and basically threatens Colonel Soft with her media power. To save his image then he puts his peacekeepers into action and sends them back in the trench. UN portrays noninterventionalism and neutrality then in the Trench when non of the English, French, nor German peacekeepers, did not know any of the languages of the people they were there to help, nor did they have an translator. Neutrality is also shown in the scene of Colonel Soft, who asks for a map of Bosnia once he feels that his image is in threat via media. The people sent by the UN to provide help have no idea of whats going on etc, which is neutrality but like Sergeant Marchand states neutrality does not exist in the state of something bad, if you are in a place like that and if you choose to be neutral and not to do anything in fact you have chosen a side. At the end the UN did nothing. Ciki and Niko died, and the UN leaves Cera in the trench, on the bomb, lying to the world that they saved him, and hoping that both sides will kill each other while trying to take the trench which will end Ceras life and get rid of the evidence.
In the other movie, the film-writer Manchevski portrays that neutrality is good. This is done when Aleksander (Macedonian Christian) reminisces the time in Bosnia when he takes a picture of a man shooting another man, and with this tries to portray that he choose a side and became a murderer because he was incapable of staying neutral for the sake of taking a picture. Alex is seen as an outsider by his family and friends because he had not visited the country in the last 16 years which leaves him in a position of not being able to understand what is going on in his town anymore. Also the Albanian Muslims see him as the other, the enemy, even though he tries to portray that he is neutral by going to their side and visiting an old friend. He is threatened by both his side, the Macedonian Christians and the other side, Albanian Muslims. The Albanian Muslims question him to why he is trying to get into their side and then threaten to slit his throat, and his side threatens to shoot him if he tries to help someone from the other side.
Therefore overall both film-writers are agains neutrality. Tanovic portrays his anger towards the media and the UN, showing that they act neutral only for their own benefit and again only act for their own benefit, when they should not stay neutral and should act to help stop the violence and the wars going on around the world. Manchevski portrays his anger towards all humans, showing that they do divide each other up by nationalities, religions etc, and that they act neutral or choose to not act neutral only to benefit themselves. Where Aleksander choose not to act neutral just to capture a photo, which is a very selfish act. So both film-makers portrays the same ideologies, just in different settings.
When it comes to questioning whether the film-makers took sides or not, it could be easily said that they did not. Tanovic is a Bosnian film-maker and he showed the Bosnian soldiers as equally bad as he showed the Serbian soldier. The Serbian soldiers did put the mine under a ‘dead’ Bosnian soldier, and it was the Bosnian soldier who shot and killed the Serbian soldier at the end after they were taken out of the trench by the peacekeepers. Tanovic’s only problem was the media and the UN, and he did an amazing job at portraying the ugly face of the media and the UN.
Malechevski in his movie Before the Rain took no sides either. He did however tend to show his own kind, the Macedonian Christians a bit more civilized and better then he did with Albanian Muslims, but over all he showed both sides equally bad and blind towards what was happening. Both sides did turn against their own kind, and gunned them down. In the first part of the movie Words, the Albanian Muslims gun down Zamira as she runs after Kiril, the monk who she fell in love with. And in the last part of the movie Pictures, the Macedonian Christians shoot down Aleksander as he tries to save Zamira from getting killed by his family and friends.
bilgesglm 