“A War” – and collateral damage [MOVIE REVIEW]
Pilou Asbæk in A WAR, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
“A War,” the Oscar nominated Danish film written and directed by Tobias Lindholm, captures not just the horror of war but also the collateral damage it inflicts on those left behind. Non-judgmental in his approach to filming the Danish soldiers whose job it is to rout the Taliban from their small corner of Afghanistan, Lindholm is interested in revealing the cohesion of individuals put in untenable situations. But as important as illustrating the lives and terrors of the soldiers, he reveals the hardship and psychological hurdles faced by the loved ones at home.
Claus Pedersen is the company commander of a small group of soldiers trying desperately to drive the Taliban from this marginally consequential patch of Afghanistan. Is anyone ever prepared to fight a war? What about a war against a hidden enemy in a land so foreign that in a prior time they would have been hard-pressed to find it on a map; where conversation with the beleaguered inhabitants can only be in the third person via an interpreter; where the Taliban fight a guerrilla war terrorizing and killing any locals who communicate with the Western soldiers; where the immediacy of danger is counted in minutes not hours?
The brilliance of Lindholm’s direction is in his ability to create a palpable tension and continue to gradually elevate it to a point where the viewer experiences the terror of uncertainty faced by the soldiers. That bombs may go off at any moment, that snipers lay in wait at every corner (or not), that the bodies of innocents will be discovered in deserted compounds, that soldiers may be fatally and/or gravely injured and necessary backup won’t appear, that the wrong target may be hit; Lindholm places the viewer within these complex situations. Never do you forget that these are frightened human beings trying to survive the chaos.
Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
But there are other victims of these wars as well. Pedersen, like many of his men, left behind a wife and three children. They are also collateral damage. It is Pedersen’s wife Maria who must try to maintain a semblance of normalcy in the family when, clearly, nothing is normal. Each of their three children reacts differently, but significantly, to the absence of their father. His reappearance under clouded circumstances does very little to smooth the waters at home.
Lindholm has created a slice of life, albeit a mostly terrifying one, that morphs into a complex psychological study of what one does under extreme pressure and how one accepts responsibility. There is no right or wrong here, only fraught choices that will have consequences no matter what the decision.
Starring Pilou Asbaek as Claus Pedersen, Lindholm has chosen an actor who reveals complexity and depth without histrionics. This is Asbaek’s third lead in a Lindholm film, having worked with him previously in “R” and “A Hijacking.” Asbaek is one of the rare actors who is able to convey a wide range of emotions without dialogue, a skill both valued and rare. Tuva Novotny, little known outside Scandinavia, conveys Maria’s angst, bewilderment and pain while maintaining a strong, loving, supportive front for her children. Were the Motion Picture Academy a bit less provincial (and the lack of diversity in this year’s nominees attests to that), both Asbaek and Novotny would have merited consideration in their respective categories.
Filmed in Turkey, cinematographer Magnus Nordenhof Jonck, another close associate of Lindholm’s, perfectly recreates the desolate isolation, grim countryside and terror of war in claustrophobic shots within enclosed compounds and long shots of seemingly benign landscapes.
Although initially reluctant to enter the bleak world of the Afghanistan conflict, Lindholm found a way to hold me captive throughout the narrative, whether at war or at home. No small feat.
This is an important film and should be seen. That Lindholm was able to create a world without judgment, just a realistic presentation of an untenable situation including the one at home, is filmmaking at its best. In Danish with English subtitles.
Opening Friday, February 12 at the Laemmle Royal in West L.A. and the Sundance Sunset Cinema in West Hollywood. Opening Friday, February 19 at the Laemmle Playhouse in Pasadena and the Laemmle Town Center in Encino.