A War (Krigen)

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Tobias Lindholm/Starring: Pilou Asbaek, Tuva Novotny, Dar Solim and Charlotte Munck

Chances are, Denmark's Oscar submission for the Best Foreign Film category at the Oscars won't enjoy a wide release, which is a pity. Director Tobias Lindholm, co-writer of the excellent Danish film The Hunt, may not have won the Oscar for his gripping A War, but it is no less powerful than its formidable competition. The film's dramatic tension and its intricate, gray, moral landscape, resists a simplistic, manichean interpretation. Nothing in the film is as simple as its deceptively prosaic title.

Company Commander Claus Michael Pedersen (powerfully played by Pilou Asbaek) leads his Danish NATO army unit in its dangerous, Afghan deployment. As Pedersen deals with the day to day perils of his command, his wife Maria (Tuva Novotny) contends with his three children at home; one of whom is becoming increasingly difficult in school. It is clear Pedersen's deployment is exacting a costly toll on his wife and family.
But for Pedersen, the problems at hand betray a more dangerous immediacy as the Taliban wage deadly aggression against the allies and his unit. Early on we see a mine savagely and graphically maim a soldier. Impatiently waiting for a rescue chopper to arrive, Pedersen's medic is unable to save the mortally wounded soldier. In another scene, we see a Danish sniper and spotter observing a Taliban on a motorcycle with a child. After collecting a mine, the Taliban uses the child as a shield against sniper fire. The human shield problem comes into play later during an attack in a village, when Pedersen is warned the Taliban are using civilians as shields. Faced with a wounded soldier in need of medical attention and the enemy's withering gunfire, Pedersen issues a call for an airstrike on the enemy; a decision that will have significant ramifications later. In an earlier scene, Pedersen's decision to send an Afghan family away from the unit's protected sanctuary; in spite of an interpreter's plea, ends tragically. The family becomes vulnerable to Taliban reprisals, which inevitably follow shortly thereafter. For Pedersen, no order issued ever seems to be free of ethical or moral entanglements.

Following the airstrike in the village, the unit returns to routine operations only to find Pedersen has been summoned home to face a judge advocate for killing civilians in said airstrike. The sticky issue of not having had clear and positive identification of the enemy becomes a damning detail in the charges leveled against him. The latter half of the film becomes a riveting courtroom drama as Pedersen and his lawyer face damning, seemingly incontrovertible evidence that threatens marital stability and the family's cohesion.

What is particularly fascinating about the story are the decisions Pedersen is forced to make as Commander and how each command decision carries elements of callousness and compassion, as well as right and wrong. Each order results in civilian deaths in spite of their purpose to eliminate the risk of further casualties. The inherent entanglements in his decisions are lost on the trial prosecution, who only consider the morality of murder and not justifiable, exculpatory evidence. Pedersen is hardly innocent but he is no bloodthirsty sadist. He also isn't guilty, for the impossible calculus in determining who lives and who dies is unjustly thrust upon those in command. Only in war are the boundaries between wanton murder and justifiable aggression vague and often indeterminate.

Maria's fierce determination to see her husband home with the family becomes an interesting issue during the trial, as she becomes willing to overlook the murkier side of her husband's service in order to have her husband home. Her struggles with her son make the trial verdict extremely critical.

Pilou Ashbaek and Tuva Novotny capture the shadings of their respective characters and are superb in their understated performances. We often see the military family dynamic in American films; seldom do we see how the same situations affect other cultures.

The film aims for and achieves a tough realism that is typical of Danish cinema. The harrowing combat scenes contrast sharply with the quiet intensity of the courtroom.

A War was part of a fine batch of Best Foreign Film nominees. Though I feel I've seen more than my share of documentaries and narrative films on the Afghan and Iraqi wars, Lindholm's film proves one more isn't necessarily too much if the material is distinctive. His film definitely stands apart.