This war drama was another of the Danish films that deserved an Oscar nomination. “Krigen” or “War” is not a classic war film, although we follow the fate of the Danish squad during the mission in Afghanistan for a good part of the time, it is a film that deals with topics such as morality and responsibility for one’s actions. The script and direction are signed by Tobias Lindholm, a filmmaker who initially presented himself as Thomas Vinterberg’s screenwriting collaborator on films such as “Sumbarino” or “The Hunt”, later “The Commune” and the Oscar-winning “Another Round”. In the meantime, Lindholm started directing films himself, he also tried his hand in America by directing two episodes of the “Mindhunter” series, and the “Krigen” film is stylistically and thematically following the complex psychological dramas he worked with Vinterberg.
It was filmed in a typical realistic style, and in order to make it all as authentic as possible, in addition to professional actors playing the main roles, he hired real soldiers to play the roles of Danish soldiers. Likewise, he hired real refugees from Afghanistan for the Afghans, and the story of division commander Claus Pedersen (Pilou Asbek) is in the center of attention. In the first 70 minutes of the film, we constantly move from Afghanistan where Claus is on a mission to Denmark where his family, his wife Maria (Tuva Novotny) and their three children are. We get a great impression of how much Claus misses his family and how much he misses his family. How it is not easy for a woman alone with three small children, and besides, she does not know when Claus will return or if he will return at all.
Unfortunately for her, Claus will return sooner than he was supposed to and because of accusations that he committed war crimes. His squad was attacked by the Taliban during a reconnaissance mission, and Claus out of nowhere ordered the bombing of a location he believed to be the enemy’s base. It turned out that there were no Taliban in that place, but that there were civilians, women, children and old people who were crushed by the bombs from the NATO planes that were called by Claus. Upon his return to Denmark, Claus will face a trial and a serious prison sentence if he is found guilty, and Lindholm’s film brilliantly deals with this not at all pleasant and always current topic.
While at the moment of the mission in Afghanistan, when his soldiers found themselves under enemy fire from the Taliban, Claus’ only responsibility and the only thing he thought about was how to save their lives. However, only later will he begin to think about what he did, and the great “Krigen” analyzes and problematizes the psychological pressure in such a situation and shows that the decisions that sometimes have to be made in a second during war conflicts are not at all simple and uniform. So Claus will also be torn between strict military rules, regulations and laws, a sense of responsibility for his soldiers and a longing for home and family, and he himself will think about what and how it happened in the first place. Did he also completely lose his mind for a moment in the madness of war and did he act as he should have? How would anyone act if they found themselves in his shoes and how would they even position themselves in the later court proceedings? A lot of questions are raised by this great psychological drama, which was once chosen as the best film at the Zagreb Film Festival.