war - Page 4 of 7

The Load – A Road Trip Through Serbia’s Wasteland

The Load Film Difficulty Ranking: 4

If you’re looking for a fun road movie like Thelma and Louise or Y Tu Mama Tambien, you’ve come to the wrong place. The Load is a brutal depiction of a country traumatised by war – it’s not a place where humour exists. There are no bright colours and no sweeping landscape shots. No one really knows what they’re doing, and there aren’t any dreams.

From: Serbia, Europe
Watch: Trailer
Next: Shok, The Trader, Mardan

Alexandra

Alexandra Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

Alexandra is a great film to watch for an insight into the Second Chechen War in southern Russia. This is probably a topic that you heard about in the news in the 2000s but didn’t know much about. Through our protagonist Alexandra, we are introduced to both sides fighting the war: the Chechens and the Russians. And, along the way, we also witness the reality of modern warfare, as well as a little bit about Russian family tyranny.

Why Watch Alexandra?

To find out something about the Second Chechen War in Chechnya
Experience life as a soldier
Learn about Chechen v. Russian culture (also two different languages)
It was nominated for a Cannes Palme D’Or

The Breakdown

Alexandra Nikolaevna hops off of a train on the way to visiting her son, fighting for Russia against the Chechen Republic. A few army officers come and find her and guide her to another train and then onto the top of an armoured vehicle. It isn’t clear what she is doing there, she is obviously out of place. Even the troops seem reluctant to talk to her and help her on her way.

She is ushered to sleep in a tent within the Russian army camp. The next morning she sees a man sleeping in a bed opposite hers. The director, Alexander Sokurov, guides us towards a close up of the man’s sleeping head which tracks down his body from head to toe. Alexandra and the audience both see his war battered body. The camera then focuses on an army jacket, showing the stars on the epaulettes showing his higher ranking. These two camera movements introduce Alexandra’s grandson Denis. From what we are shown, we can tell he is a soldier of a higher rank, and he is young, but already battered by what must be a prolonged war. (A great way of introducing a character without having to say anything).

After waking up, Denis takes his grandma for a tour around the army camp. Unlike other war films which focus on action, Alexandra (and Sokurov) direct our attention to the banalities of war. Sokurov shows us a line of men cleaning their guns, zooming in to show us the details. Denis then takes Alexandra into an armoured vehicle. Inside, Alexandra comments on the horrible smell and focuses on the wires, pumps, and empty drivers seat. In Alexandra, we see the guns and armoured vehicles but we don’t see them in action. This is the reality of war, prolonged periods of waiting.

Conclusion

Alexandra is our unbiased insight into the Second Chechen War. She gets everyone at the camp talking, from the lowly privates to the unit commander. Then, right when you think we are only going to hear from the Russian side of the story, she goes wandering into a nearby Chechen town and has a chat with an old Chechen woman. In a way that only an old woman could, she shows us life on the front line and gets soldiers to talk to us.

Also when you’ve watched this film, I’d recommend following this link to KinoKultura to read a more in-depth analysis of Alexandra.

Impression of a War – The Legacy of Violence in Colombia

Impression of a War Film Difficulty Ranking: 4

You probably know who Pablo Escobar is and what he did. You also may know about the war that has raged on in Colombia across the last several decades. While the wars have ceased, the mist of violence still remains. In Impression of a War you’ll see that violence still lingers in Colombia. It is hidden in the landscapes, the music, and the people of Colombia. This film will show you where to look.

Image result for impression of a war

Why Watch Impression of a War?

You’ve seen Narcos and possibly Colours of the Mountain and Maria Full of Grace and want to see a more experimental look at the legacy of violence in Colombia
It’s a kaleidoscope of images showing how violence has permeated all aspects of life in Colombia
To see Colombian soldiers shooting at guerillas one minute, and dancing salsa the next
It’s a Silver Leopard winner at the Locarno Film Festival

The Breakdown

The river of Medellin has changed colours many times in it’s contemporary history as textile factories up river dumped excess dye into the river. One time the factory chucked bucket loads of red dye into the river turning the whole river red. This happened at the height of Escobar’s violence in Medellin and as a result, the media turned this blood red river into a symbol of the cities violence.

This anecdote is one example of the violence entrenched in Colombian society. An entrenchment that cannot see a river coloured red by red dye, but a river soaked in blood.

Impression of a War is a work of art that tries to cast a subjective gaze at the legacy of violence in Colombia. Restrepo (the director) captures any visible trace of violence in the daily lives of the people living in Colombia. He shows us images from the battlefields, images from the landscape (as above), and interviews with those affected by the violence.

All these traces, whether deliberate or accidental, constitute the raw material for Impression of a War.

Conclusion

This 30 minute documentary covers a lot. Violence has affected everything from the colour of the taxis to the cities music. Will the new generation be freed from this legacy?

Witnesses – A Bleak Croatian Portrayal of the Futility of War

Witnesses Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

Witnesses follows a group of brothers who have returned from the front lines of the Croatian-Serbian War as broken men. Their thirst for revenge fuels a late night attack on a Serbian neighbor. Rumors of witnesses pushes them to solemnly work to eliminate all of them. However, stuck in a bleak city on lockdown in a narrative that keeps replaying the past indicates that their fate is unavoidable.

From: Croatia, Europe
Watch: Tubi, Kanopy
Next: The Load, Sleepwalking Land, Shok

The Breakdown

It feels like the three brothers are doomed right from the start when they murder their Serbian neighbor. As they drive towards his house crammed into a small car, they’re completely silent and lifeless. Their lack of emotion makes it feel like their condemned to act instead of acting willingly. After the murder, they appear solemnly sat around the table in their mother’s house in silence. Their mother is dressed black in mourning, and their father is lying next door in an open coffin. An empty bar is the only other place the brothers are pictured, sipping on pints of beer in silence. It feels like they’ve already resigned themselves to their fate and are simply waiting for it to catch up with them.

Their hopelessness is also imbued into the setting. The skies are constantly overcast which shrouds everything underneath them in a bleak palette of greys. The lack of light makes the brothers faces appear more ghostly and pale, in contrast to the more vibrant colors of their flashbacks on the front lines of the war in a time before they’d lost hope. Now, with trauma from the war and having murdered a neighbor, their pale faces are a mark of the life that has left them. They’re sleepwalking like zombies towards their fate.

The narrative structure also serves to construct the prison of trauma they’re stuck in. Following the murder, they’re never given the same freedom as in the opening scene where the camera follows them around the town in their car in one shot. As the film moves on, the same scenes start replaying: scenes of the three brothers in the bar, scenes of the three brothers around the table by their dead dad, and scenes of the three brothers at funerals. Repeatedly showing the brothers in the same places traps them within a limited area. Furthermore, the scenes are all shot with still cameras that don’t move, mimicking their guilt by trapping them within the frame. Even though they haven’t been found guilty, the way the cyclical narrative and fixed cameras become their prison. They’re stuck within the deserted town to be consumed by their guilt and trauma from the war.

The bleak setting, emotionless characters, and cyclical narrative imbues hopelessness into the look and tone of Witnesses, turning it into a gloomy but effective film about the futility of war and hate, and the grief and trauma it causes.

What to Watch Next

If you’re looking for more bleak portrayals of the Balkan Wars, I strongly recommend watching:

The Load: A road trip movie following one Serbian man’s truck journey from Kosovo to Belgrade. It’s also his journey to becoming aware of the grim reality of the war.
Shok: A short film that depicts the brutal occupation of Kosovo.

Or if you’d rather watch more bleak films featuring characters blindly moving forward in divided countries check out Mozambique’s Sleepwalking Land or Rwanda’s The Mercy of the Jungle.

What Did You Do In The War Thanasi? (Greece)

What Did You Do In The War Thanasi? Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

Time for a Greek comedy! What Did You Do in the War Thanasi is all about the extremely energetic and slapstick Thanasi. As much as he tries not to, you just know that trouble is going to end up finding him. For a fun and easy night in, watch this film with a free trial on Amazon Prime Video.

Image result for what did you do in the war thanasi

Why Watch this Film?

For something light and funny (something we need more of on FilmRoot)
It’s our first Greek film set in Greece (see The Lobster for more Greek films)
If you liked Life is Beautiful or Closely Watched Trains and want to see another WW2 comedy
Experience some Greek humour (the main character is extremely energetic and melodramatic)

The Breakdown

It’s WW2 and the Nazis and Italians have occupied Greece. A bunch of the locals are queuing up for some rations; a big bowl of gruel. Back at home a family is listening to the forbidden BBC radio news trying to give the Greeks hope that the occupation will end.

From what you can see, the occupation looks brutal. Locals are scavenging for any food on the streets and people are starving (like the people in Germany as you’ll see in Little Dieter Needs to Fly). In addition, the German and Italian military occupation is obvious. Guards are watch the streets from watch towers whilst soldiers chase and shoot Greek rebels.

Thanasi, our protagonist, is our comic hero. He tries to avoid all association with the Greek resistance for fear of being caught by the Nazis. Typically, as this is a comedy, he always ends up being in the wrong place at the wrong time (kind of like Forrest Gump’s knack for ending up in famous historical moments).

Conclusion

What Did You Do in the War Thanasi is one of the best war comedies I have seen. It is driven by Thanasi’s constant high energy and melodrama (a bit like Guido in Life is Beatiful). Well worth a watch if you are looking for a good Greek film or a nice comedy.