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A WAR Send This Review to a Friend
The moral complications that can arise from any war, but one especially that is totally wasteful and impossible to win, are devastatingly captured in “A War,” set both in the morass of Afghanistan and back home in Denmark. Justly a foreign language nominee in the current Oscar competition, the film written and directed by Tobias Lindholm (“A Hijacking”) builds steadily from battleground action to a trial in Denmark as a result of civilians being killed.
Early on we are introduced to the danger faced by company commander Claus M. Pedersen, played impressively by Pilou Asbæk, and his men, one of whom is tragically killed. There are intermittent cuts to Pedersen’s wife Maria (Tuva Novotny) and their three children depicting her struggle to keep everything together while she gets phone calls from him and longs for his return.
When he does return, it is under a cloud. He is sent back from Afghanistan to face charges of his having killed civilians when he ordered a lethal attack. We begin to see the pangs of conscience and conflict between truth and expediency. Pedersen feels terrible about what happened and would like to take responsibility even if it means the maximum of four years in prison. But Maria asserts his responsibility to his own children. His lawyer says clearly that he isn’t interested in truth, only getting his client off, and Peterson is coached to say that he received word that justified his action.
The trial procedures are crisply presented in court in a businesslike fashion, with the prosecutor laying out the damning evidence that Pedersen acted without justification. Various soldiers from his unit are called to testify. So is Pedersen. The lawyers calmly clash with opposing perspectives, while Maria waits nervously. At home between court sessions, Pedersen’s young daughter asks him if it is true that he killed children.
The course of the trial and how it turns out underscore that there is no satisfactory moral answer to what can occur when men are put under fire and snap decisions are made, especially when Danish soldiers, American soldiers and other military men sent into Afghanistan are basically on a fool’s errand. “A War,” small in physical scope, is huge in what it has to say. A Magnolia Pictures release. Reviewed February 12, 2016.
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