''Of Men and War'' (french: Des hommes et de la guerre) is a 2014

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

by Laurent Bécue-Renard. It explores the psychological legacy of war on a group of American veterans returning from conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The men are undergoing trauma therapy at The Pathway Home, a residential treatment program on the grounds of the Veterans Home in Yountville, CA until 2018. Over the course of five years, they participate in group therapy and one-on-one sessions and gradually transform their trauma into narratives of survival before returning home to their wives, children, and parents. The film premiered in the Special Screenings section at the

2014 Cannes Film Festival The 67th Cannes Film Festival was held from 14 to 25 May 2014. New Zealand film director Jane Campion was the head of the jury for the main competition section. The Palme d'Or was awarded to the Turkish film '' Winter Sleep'' directed by Nuri Bi ...

. The film won the VPRO IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary at the 2014

International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is the world's largest documentary film festival held annually since 1988 in Amsterdam. Over a period of twelve days, it has screened more than 300 films and sold more than 250,000 tic ...

. It received a

European Film Award for Best Documentary The European Film Award for Best Documentary or Prix Arte has been awarded annually since 1989 by the European Film Academy. Special Mentions were presented alongside the winner of the award until 1993, since 1999 a set of nominees are presented o ...

nomination at the

27th European Film Awards The 27th European Film Awards were presented on 13 December 2014 in Riga, Latvia. The winners were selected by more than 2,500 members of the European Film Academy. Nominations for the People's Choice Award category were announced on 1 Septembe ...

and screened at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

's Documentary Fortnight. The Pathway Home suspended its operations indefinitely and placed its patients in other programs after a gunman killed three staff members in a 2018 murder-suicide.

Production

The film was a coproduction between Alice Films in France and Louise Productions in Switzerland. The film had three editors, who worked on the film for years:

Isidore Bethel Isidore Bethel is a French-American filmmaker whom ''Filmmaker'' named one of the "25 New Faces of Independent Film" in 2020. The films he edits, directs, and produces use filmmaking to make sense of overwhelming experiences and touch on recurr ...

(also associate producer), Sophie Brunet, and Charlotte Boigeol. It exists in four versions: the original 142-minute festival and French theatrical cut, a 96-minute cut for

Kino Lorber Kino Lorber is an international film distribution company based in New York City. Founded in 1977, it was originally known as Kino International until it was acquired by and merged into Lorber HT Digital in 2009. It specializes in art house films, ...

's United States release of the film, a 90-minute version for '' POVs US broadcast of the film, and a 102-minute cut for its French broadcast on France 2.

Reception

Upon its world premiere, ''Of Men and War'' received glowing industry praise. ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' called it "a rather unforgettable experience" and '' Variety'' wrote that "Laurent Becue-Renard's rigorous war-trauma documentary provides vital testimony." The film won the Cinematic Nonfiction Grand Jury Prize at the

Little Rock Film Festival The Little Rock Film Festival (LRFF) is an annual film festival held in Downtown Little Rock, Arkansas each spring. Based in the historic River Market District, home to the William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library, the Little Rock Film Fes ...

and Special Recognition at the San Francisco International Film Festival, where the jury noted "''Of Men and War'' makes us understand the horrors of war without ever showing us a single frame of battle, offering access to interior psychologies most viewers have never seen before in a tightly structured, beautifully edited, minimalist piece of nonfiction." From there, it had theatrical releases in France and the United States and received overwhelming critical praise, including a score of 100% on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

. The film is a ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' Critic's Pick.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Of Men and War 2014 films 2014 documentary films French documentary films Swiss documentary films Documentary films about the Iraq War Documentary films about post-traumatic stress disorder Documentary films about veterans 2010s English-language films 2010s French films