A War

One of the five final nominees for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2016 Academy Awards, Denmark’s A War is a quietly searing drama about morality, priorities, and absolute truth. It’s told in a matter-of-fact manner that eschews melodrama, yet is loaded with haunting human moments and circumstances. Yes, it’s another war film set in the irrational war zone of Afghanistan, but writer/director Tobias Lindholm’s film aims for the bigger picture. Determining the morality of the international effort in Afghanistan is not his goal, but rather understanding the rules of engagement, the missteps taken in the fog of war, and the responsibilities that create conflicts for soldiers and family men. This is a story about war as a universal dilemma, not a specific offensive.

Claus Pedersen (Asbaek) is good man, a model soldier, and outstanding commander of his military unit in Afghanistan, as well as an absent husband and father of three children back in Denmark. The early portion of the film cuts between Claus’ experiences in Afghanistan and his family’s back home. Although the story of the effect of war on soldiers’ families has grown somewhat familiar, Lindholm presents Maria (Novotny) and his kids’ struggle with realism but no undue drama. Pedersen is a beloved commander who speaks to his men in human terms rather than military-speak. While out on patrol with the unit, the group comes under fire (grippingly filmed), and a soldier is desperately wounded. Claus calls in an air strike that will provide cover for the men on the ground, but the strike also winds up killing 11 Afghan civilians. The incident cuts short Claus’ military career and finds him facing charges back home.

The remainder of the film is devoted to the civil trial and the continuing limbo that affects Claus and his family, who will have to face separation from him if he is found guilty and sent to jail. There are no courtroom histrionics or fireworks, just reasoned arguments regarding any foreknowledge Claus might have had regarding the tragic deaths. Is there an equivalence between saving his men and saving foreign noncombatants? Does Claus owe greater loyalty to his family or his country? These and many other questions percolate throughout A War, which like Lindholm’s previous film, A Hijacking (which preceded Captain Phillips, but shares many similarities), is a dramatic treatise on ethics.