There are not many lighthearted films about wars, but this is definitely one. It's full of black humour, of the kind that cynical people enjoy who realize that in a war, making jokes is the best recipe against indifference.
The cynical people in this case are two aid workers for the imaginary organization 'Aid Across Borders', providing humanitarian aid in Bosnia at the time of the ceasefire. They are trying to remove a human corpse from a deep well, in order to prevent this source of drinking water from getting contaminated. The problem is that they need a long and strong rope, which is hard to come by in a war torn country.
The film documents their search for the rope, which leads to all kinds of dramatic, funny and hopeless situations. The script is very clever, because in their search, they come across all aspects of war. The useless killing and human despair on the one hand, and the ineffectiveness of aid workers and UN forces on the other. But how hopeless their quest for the rope sometimes seems to get, they never lose their sense of humour.
There are also some side stories: by coincidence, the two aid workers, their Bosnian interpreter and their female co-worker are accompanied by a Russian female UN official who also is the former lover of one of them, and by a Bosnian child who turns out to be instrumental in the search for the rope.
Benicio Del Toro and Tim Robbins are pitch-perfect as the two aid workers. They share some very sharp dialogue. The female leads are a bit less convincing, partly because under all circumstances they both look like models, straight from the catwalk. Which is okay from an aesthetic point of view, of course. The soundtrack, with some unusual rock songs, adds to the edgy and offbeat atmosphere in this film.
The only drawback is the bland title. The original Spanish title, 'El Pozo' or 'The Well' is a little bit better, 'Fatso' could be an alternative, but 'Rope' would have been perfect. Unfortunately, that one has already been taken by someone else.
The cynical people in this case are two aid workers for the imaginary organization 'Aid Across Borders', providing humanitarian aid in Bosnia at the time of the ceasefire. They are trying to remove a human corpse from a deep well, in order to prevent this source of drinking water from getting contaminated. The problem is that they need a long and strong rope, which is hard to come by in a war torn country.
The film documents their search for the rope, which leads to all kinds of dramatic, funny and hopeless situations. The script is very clever, because in their search, they come across all aspects of war. The useless killing and human despair on the one hand, and the ineffectiveness of aid workers and UN forces on the other. But how hopeless their quest for the rope sometimes seems to get, they never lose their sense of humour.
There are also some side stories: by coincidence, the two aid workers, their Bosnian interpreter and their female co-worker are accompanied by a Russian female UN official who also is the former lover of one of them, and by a Bosnian child who turns out to be instrumental in the search for the rope.
Benicio Del Toro and Tim Robbins are pitch-perfect as the two aid workers. They share some very sharp dialogue. The female leads are a bit less convincing, partly because under all circumstances they both look like models, straight from the catwalk. Which is okay from an aesthetic point of view, of course. The soundtrack, with some unusual rock songs, adds to the edgy and offbeat atmosphere in this film.
The only drawback is the bland title. The original Spanish title, 'El Pozo' or 'The Well' is a little bit better, 'Fatso' could be an alternative, but 'Rope' would have been perfect. Unfortunately, that one has already been taken by someone else.