San Diego Reader February 25, 2016 65
This is war W
riter-director Tobias Lindholm’s A War is a microcosmic and finely
wrought war story in which everyone has their reasons. Danish company commander Claus M. Pederson (Pilou Asbæk, looking like a cross between Michael Shannon and Ewan McGregor and nailing the role’s measured inten- sity) starts leading his unit’s patrols through Helmand province more often than he maybe ought to, because he wants to keep them alive and functional. An Afghan family comes seeking aid because they love their injured daughter. The Taliban targets the family because they want the for- eigners gone. Back home, Pederson’s wife wants her troubled son to have his father around. And the Danish govern- ment wants to make sure its soldiers don’t get away with murder. Events progress with what feels like clockwork inevitability, despite the clear moments of moral choosing — an impressive, if disheartening, combination. Also impressive: the film’s refusal to render judgment on what it so thoroughly depicts. Instead, it is content with a
declaration: “This is war.” The rest is up to you.
— Matthew Lickona MOVIES
INTERVIEW WITH A WAR WRITER-DIRECTOR TOBIAS LINDHOLM Matthew Lickona: You told Awards Daily, “I spoke to so many Taliban warriors, soldiers, prosecutors, and lawyers, as well as wives and children to try to get the logic of the story.” Were there particular stories that
gave you clues about how to shape the film? Tobias Lindholm: I met the wife of a soldier who had served three times in Afghanistan, and she told me a story about her ten-year-old son, who started to have really strong reactions to his father’s absence. He had a hard time focusing in school. She told me about a meeting she had where the school seemed not to understand what she was going through. Basically, they complained and said she needed to get her son to behave or take him out of school and find another class for him. She spoke about her disappoint-
A War: We’re all in this together.
ment. The society that had sent her husband to war was not helping her deal with the issues that followed from that decision. It gave me insight into how it must feel to be spouse to a sol- dier. There’s an invisible war at home; nobody sees it, but it’s a direct effect of the decision to send soldiers to war.
ML: I was impressed at the weight you were able to give to that invisible war, especially since you were also depict- ing the much more obviously dramatic conflict in Afghanistan. TL: A lot of war films I’ve seen about the dehumanization of soldiers. We’ll see a young guy going into war, and
then we’ll dehumanize him throughout the journey, make him fall apart and become a monster of some kind, or at least a very damaged human be- ing. I decided to do the opposite and humanize these guys, at least by giving them full lives. All the soldiers I’ve met have relatives, and telling a war
ENTER TO WIN A BLU-RAY™ DVD COMBO PACK OF
TO ENTER, VISIT
SDREADER.COM AND CLICK “CONTESTS.”
DEADLINE TO ENTER IS MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29TH AT 1:00PM. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. SPOTLIGHT is rated R for some language including sexual references. NOW AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAY™
SAN DIEGO READER THURS, 02/25/16 BLACK&WHITE
, DVD & DIGITAL HD
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104