War and Peace

We can witness countless violent conflicts all over the world every day, through television, news sites, social media, and newspaper images. War is inextricably interconnected with film and photography: from the first war footage shot during the Italian invasion of Libya in 1911 to the short clips any citizen in a war zone can now capture on their phone.

No image is made by chance, we discover. A soldier captures a heroic portrait of a general; a rebel documents the violent excesses of those in power: everyone’s got their own reason for filming, whether it’s to keep a souvenir or to a obtain piece of evidence. But in the meantime, unintentionally, a worldview and zeitgeist is taking shape. Who are the perpetrators? Who are the victims? Who believes this conflict is justifiable, and why?

This engaging and dreamlike film explores the intimate relationship that has developed between war and cinema in little more than a century. It is an important cinematic contemplation that feeds into a re-evaluation of wars in recent and more distant times.