The Damned
Philosophical war drama about a regiment of soldiers during the American Civil War. Far from the front lines, the question arises: what is the point of their mission?
In a moment where war seems to permeate every element of our lives, celebrated Italian-born, American-based filmmaker Roberto Minervini (Stop The Pounding Heart, The Other Side) upends both the historical war genre and the western with a quiet and spare approach, at once philosophical and radically humane. Informed by his previous films made in the American South, where he lived for a decade, The Damned embeds itself within a troupe of volunteer Union soldiers dispatched by the US Army to the western territories during the winter of 1862.
Shot in the wilds of Montana with a small ensemble of non-professional actors whose improvised dialogue largely stems from personal experience, The Damned portrays war as a profoundly intimate and disorienting journey. Stripping conflict to its essence, with lonely, anxiety-inducing stretches of waiting to kill or be killed set against great, gorgeous expanses, Minervini captures with stunning immediacy an intense sense of physicality and the attendant psychological strain.
With The Damned, Minervini won the award for best director in the Un Certain Regard programme section at the Cannes Film Festival. (source: www.tiff.net, adapted)