Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Pilou Asbæk, Dar Salim, Tuva Novotny, Søren Malling, Charlotte Munck, Dulfi Al-Jabouri, Alex Høgh Andersen, Jakob Frølund, Philip Sem Dambæk.
There are no winners in war, just people who are alive and those who have died and sometimes those that are in between the two states, their hearts functioning but ground to stone and whose thoughts are too preoccupied with what they have witnessed to ever find solace in humanity again. War is meaningless at the best of times, when it sees the split second decision enforced upon someone, to let someone else die or a comrade, then the futility of it is heart-breaking and obvious, such is the madness of A War.
To find a film that deals with this duel state of emotions is rare, the split between what is seen on the battle front, namely Afghanistan, and the home life, the trials and tribulations of bringing up children in what is effectively a one-parent family, a mixed up situation in which into which is neatly juxtaposed in the lives of those that the army are meant to be protecting.
Pilou Asbæk’s performance as Danish Commander Claus Michael Pedersen, the man to whom the split second decision revolves around, is exemplary and in another time when the year’s acting quality has been exceptional, would surely stand up to anybody, especially in the best foreign language film category, at this year’s Academy Awards or B.A.F.T.A ceremonies.
Arguably the film works so well because it asks of the audience the one question that time and time again gets white-washed over for fear of painting war not as heroic but as the means to declare conflict in the mind of the soldier and the civilian, it asks, what would you do in that split second, would you lie to not just save your family and your comrades or would you tell the truth to save your soul; it is a question of frightening morality and one that is not easy to find the truth within.
A film of dramatic responsibility, of confrontation within the mind and one in which serves notice once more the futility of such conflicts, that the only winner is loss of faith in humanity. Tobias Lindholm’s A War is touching and devilish, a remarkable feat of writing endurance.
Ian D. Hall