OF MEN AND WAR

West Coast Premiere • Documentary • France, 2014

DCP • 16:9 • Dolby 5.1 • Color • 142 min

Directed by: Laurent Bécue-Renard

Written by: Laurent Bécue-Renard

Cinematography: Camille Cottagnoud

Film Editing: Isidore Bethel, Sophie Brunet, Charlotte Boigeol

Original Score: Kudsi Erguner

Produced by: Laurent Bécue-Renard (Alice Films)

International Sales: CAT&Docs

 

On the heels of the ferocious debate around Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper comes this profoundly unsettling documentary following a dozen Iraq War veterans in treatment for PTSD. Hewn from the raw material of group therapy sessions at The Pathway Home in Yountville, California, Of Men And War is a rigorous but rewarding monument to the courage of men who daily face down anger, resentments, fears, and shame in their quests for something most of us take for granted: a normal life. Never abusing the vulnerabilities of the protagonists, the unobtrusive fly-on-the-wall style candidly excavates each man’s story over a period of months while he progresses, or not, as the case may be. As the film builds to a conclusion, the camera itself becomes an instrument of therapy, and the full impact of the struggle is felt, a struggle not limited solely to the men trying to make peace with war.

 

Envisioned as the second installment of his “Geneology of Wrath” trilogy, writer/director Laurent Bécue-Renard took fourteen months to shoot at the treatment center, the first five of which were spent without cameras present, simply observing the men. In addition to this, he followed up for four years outside the therapy environment. The first part of his proposed trilogy, Living Afterwards: Words of Women, aka War Wearied, focused solely on women who are displaced by war, and traced their progress in a therapy environment as they try to come to terms with their grief and rebuild their lives. The documentary was recognized with a Peace Award at the 2001 Berlinale. Bécue-Renard has been committed to examining the psychological repercussions of war from his days as an editor of the Sarajevo Online magazine, to which he contributed his Chronicles of Sarajevo, a published collection of stories, while living in Sarajevo during the last year of the Bosnian war.

 

Quotes:

“…a rather unforgettable experience.”

– Jordan Mintzer HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

“…might be the most powerful Iraq war movie in years.”

– Julian Ross INDIEWIRE