03/10/2023 - The 11th edition of the only film festival reflecting upon conflicts and their consequences is unspooling in Champagne between 2 and 8 October

The causes of wars, the situations they create as they unfold as well as in their aftermath, and the human lives upended by sometimes far-off conflicts are at the heart of the 11th edition of War on Screen, the only film festival to reflect upon conflicts and their consequences, which was opened yesterday by Thomas Cailley’s Cannes attraction The Animal Kingdom [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Thomas Cailley
film profile]. Upwards of 100 feature films and short films of all genres and from all corners of the globe are set to be presented in Châlons-en-Champagne until 8 October.

Ten feature film are battling it out in competition: Lost Country [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Vladimir Perišić
film profile] by Serbia’s Vladimir Perišić (discovered in Cannes’ Critics’ Week), The Last Men by French director David Oelhoffen, two films well-received in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section (the award-winning work The Buriti Flower [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: João Salaviza and Renée Nad…
film profile] by Portugal’s João Salaviza and Brazil’s Renée Nader Messora, and Goodbye Julia [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mohamed Kordofani
film profile] by Sudanese director Mohamed Kordofoni), The Vanishing Soldier [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Israel’s Dani Rosenberg (unveiled in competition in Locarno), the documentaries In the Rearview [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Poland’s Maciek Hamela (unveiled in Cannes’ ACID line-up and victorious in Sheffield) and Facing Darkness [+see also:
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interview: Jean-Gabriel Périot
film profile] by France’s Jean-Gabriel Périot (presented in Karlovy Vary), The Burdened by Yemeni director Amr Gamal (unveiled in the Berlinale’s Panorama section) and two films from the Sundance Film Festival (US production Fremont by Babak Jalal and Heroic [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Mexico’s David Zonana). The line-up will be assessed by a jury including Iranian filmmaker Sepideh Farsi (whose movie The Siren [+see also:
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film profile] is due to be screened), her Ukrainian and Norwegian counterparts Daria Onyshchenko and Birgitte Sigmundstad, French actor Stefan Crepon and his compatriot screenwriter Olivier Lorelle.

Also worth a mention, screening out of competition, is Cannes’ Grand Prize winner The Zone of Interest [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] by Jonathan Glazer and fellow Croisette competitors Four Daughters [+see also:
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interview: Kaouther Ben Hania
film profile] by Kaouther Ben Hania and The Old Oak [+see also:
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film profile] by Ken Loach (which is set to close the festival), Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s animated movie They Shot the Piano Player [+see also:
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film profile], Luise by Matthias Luthardt, Dirty, Difficult, Dangerous [+see also:
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interview: Wissam Charaf
film profile] by Wissam Charaf, Nezouh [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] by Soudade Kaadan and the documentaries Polanski, Horowitz. Hometown [+see also:
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film profile] by Mateusz Kudla and Anna Kokoszka-Romer, homing in on Roman Polanski, and Wim Wenders’ Anselm [+see also:
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film profile], about the artist Anselm Kiefer.

War On Screen’s guest of honour this year is German filmmaker Volker Schlöndorff (who’ll be delivering a masterclass on 5 October and who’ll see four of his films screened), and is also offering up a variety of Focus sessions, namely "The natural environment, paradox and urgent matters #2: Civil nuclear energy, a weapon of war?" (notably involving films by Rebecca Zlotowski, Nikolaus Geyrhalter and Michael Mann), "From Lincoln to the present day: A history of the USA through the lens of cinema" (screening seven films, including I Am Not Your Negro [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] by Raoul Peck) and "Italian comedy goes to war: An irresistible antidote".

(Translated from French)