ANOTHER FRONTIER

Somewhere on the planet, a terrible war rages. Hannah and her son have managed to escape from the bombs, tanks and guns and have arrived at a place where everybody wants to go to: the No Man’s Land. Every refugee tries to get in, because it’s supposed to be a safe place from war and violence. Hannah and her son will soon discover that this place has more in common with Auschwitz than with Disney Land. Only the sun gets up for free, could have been the motto of the creators of No Man’s Land. In order to survive, you have to convince as many TV-viewers as possible. The “participants” are nothing more than easy entertainment for the viewing masses. And the more shocking the struggle to survive, the better. Even the Roman bread & circuses pales next to the No Man’s Land.

This first long feature of André Cruz Shiraiwa uses a lot of themes relevant to contemporary society: perverted viewing habits, voyeurism, apathy, the price of fame… Through the camera objective of reality-TV, we follow a mother who has to risk everything to keep her child alive. The result is a confronting mirror-image of ourselves, asking how we would react to these unhuman practices.