(Denmark, 115 min.)
Written and directed by Tobias Lindholm
Starring: Pilou
Asbaek, Alex Høgh Andersen, Tuva Novotny, Søren
Malling
 |
| Courtesy VVS Films |
Canuck Oscar completists may now cross all the titles off the list
of last year’s nominees! A War,
Denmark’s nominee in the Best Foreign Language Film category, finally gets
released in the Great White North after the intricacies off independent
distribution deals kept it off the screens during last year’s race. That
absence is a shame, for while A War
might not have had much of a chance of toppling shoo-in/winner Son of Saul, it’s a smart, timely, and
compelling film that deserves an audience.
Director Tobias Lindholm (A Hijacking) knows how to strip a story down to its basic elements and make it taut and riveting. Using a great script and a host of natural, dynamic performances, A War engages a complicated morality play that leaves no easy answers. The kinetic cinematography by Lindholm’s A Hijacking DP Magnus Nordenhof Jønck zooms in on the intimate human details to pack the film as tightly as a bomb as it creates the intense psychology of war. Part Courage Under Fire, part Eye in the Sky with a dash of The Deer Hunter, A War explodes the moral and ethical grey zones of contemporary warfare as one respected soldier finds himself in the crosshairs after making a split-second call in the heat of battle.
Said soldier is Commander Claus Michael Pederson, who gives
the order to fire upon a bunker when the men of his squad find themselves on
the receiving end of bullets they believe to be from the Taliban while securing
a small village in Afghanistan. The threat is severe as the soldiers arrive and
find an upsetting crime scene riddled with civilian casualties before the
violence explodes. One of Claus’s top men takes a bullet from the heavy assault
the unit encounters from an unseen sight in the distance. The chaos, noise, and
threats from all directions force Claus to assess the situation in unfavourable
circumstances.
The rules of engagement insist on a confirmed sight of the
enemy before engaging and, following some discussion with the men at the base
with whom he argues over the wire, Claus makes the call to fire and saves the
unit. In such a tense situation—and Lindholm throws viewers into the dusty
madness of the firestorm to appreciate Claus’s disorientation—one might make
the same choice.
Claus might win the battle but he encounters a greater war
when judge advocate generals pose some inquiries into his handling of the
ordeal. The target, the military investigators say, was actually a civilian
bunker and not a Taliban base. This revelation means puts blood on Claus’s
hands and sends the soldier to stand trial for the deaths of 11
civilians—including children.
The soldier is a father himself as Lindholm cuts back and
forth between Afghanistan and Denmark as Claus and his wife (Tuva Novotny) deal
with the distance that the job creates between the family as three children go
without their father for weeks and months on end. Here’s where A War really gets interesting. As Claus
stands trial for his poor judgement call, his family continues to suffer for
his absence. The film shows the alienation and divisions that war creates
between families as tours put soldiers overseas for long stretches of time. Is
Claus’s distance from his family his true crime if it was all in vain?
A War challenges
viewers to consider how one might react in Claus’s situation. Testimony pours
in from his fellow soldiers and officers, all of whom agree on the chaos and
urgency of the moment even if reports are wildly inconsistent. While one might
see the film’s line of inquiry as conservative given that it asks one to
consider the loss of innocent lives, including children, as mere collateral
damage in pursuit of a greater good, Lindholm’s tense and thoughtful drama
weighs the practical realities of warfare: war simply isn’t a game of clear
sightlines and easy calls. Asbaek’s strong performance lets the viewer wade
within Claus’s inner war as his loyalty to his men and his children put his
guilt in conflict with his conscience. He captivates by giving the character a subtle
awareness of his wrongdoing while maintaining his composure and resolute belief
that the intensity of battle calls for tough choices. The trial asks him to
make a conscious lie to counteract a naïve oversight. A War suggests that there is no clean shot in contemporary depersonalised
warfare. The further one gets from horses and bayonets, the murkier the
landscape becomes.
As Lindholm sections the film between a war drama and a
procedural, he keeps A War as suspenseful
and engaging in the courtroom as it is on the battlefield. This sharp, authentic
war drama should be in any Oscar watcher’s sights.
Bonus features: Extra
nibbles are scant, but it’s hard to complain when the disc gives us a film that
was worth waiting for. On the menu is a five-minute behind the scenes
featurette that takes viewers on location in the Middle East to explore how the
filmmakers recreate authenticity of battle. (Who knew that a crewmember with a broom
follows the cinematographer along the ground to kick up dust in all the shots?) The short doc includes interviews with
Lindholm, Asbaek, and Novotny as they discuss the film’s three-pronged portrait
of a family during wartime.
A War is now available on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital platforms from
VVS Films.
