The experience of those who defend the shores and principles of their homelands will be honoured when the 6th annual Veterans Film Festival unfurls in Canberra on November 6. The frontline realities lived by soldiers, survivors and first responders from 11 countries will comprise the 2019 program, with 18 short films and seven features to screen at such iconic venues as the Australian War Memorial and the National Film and Sound Archive.
In a major coup for the event, the Governor General of Australia, His Excellency General the Honourable David Hurley AC, DSC (Ret’d) and Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley have been announced as patrons of the Veterans Film Festival. This alliance continues a strong history of support between the festival and individuals and organisations representing the returned servicemen and women of Australia and their loved ones. On board in 2019 as Presenting Partner is The Australian Defence Force, with mental health advocacy groups Beyond Blue and The Road Home also providing support.
Opening night will see the Australian Premiere of Vladimir Potapov’s The Cry of Silence, an adaption of Tamara Zinberg’s bestselling story of survival set against the Leningrad Blockade of February, 1942. Shot for Russian television but exhibiting a scale and sense of time and place on par with the grandest theatrical features, it stars Alina Sarghina (pictured, above) as Katya, a teenage girl living alone in the war torn city, whose will to survive is rejuvenated when she finds an abandoned infant boy.
Direct from its Australian Premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival will be the French animated drama, The Swallows of Kabul. Co-directed by Zabou Breitman and Eléa Gobbé-Mévellec, this stunning, deeply involving film recounts the romance between Mohsen and Zunaira in Kabul in the summer of 1998, when life was ruled over by the Taliban militia. The Closing Night feature will be the U.S. documentary The Interpreters (pictured, above) from directors Sofian Khan and Andres Caballero, an insider’s perspective on the Iraqi and Afghan nationals who work as ‘the voice’ of American forces in foreign combat positions.
Australian films will be represented by encore screenings of Kriv Stenders’ recent box office success Danger Close, the powerfully immersive re-enactment of The Battle of Long Tan; the A.C.T. Premiere of Storm Ashwood’s PTSD drama Escape and Evasion, starring Hugh Sheridan, Firass Dirani and Rena Owen; and, Tom Jeffery’s classic 1979 story of military mateship, The Odd Angry Shot, which has been lovingly restored by NFSA staff to coincide with its 40th anniversary. Also screening will be a selection of episodes of the online documentary series Voodoo Medics, from director Kristin Shorten.
Four Australian shorts will screen, including Jason Trembath’s scifi-tinged drama Carcerem and Joseph Chebatte and Julian Maroun’s intense Afghan-set morality tale, Entrenched. Also screening will be four films from the U.S., amongst them the breathtaking animated work Minor Accident of War (pictured, right), based upon the true story of B-17 navigator Edward Field, and Brooke Mailhiot’s ode to the military canine, Surviving with Grief.
Indicating the truly global perspective that the Veterans Film Festival encompasses, other countries represented in the short film line-up include Iraq (Ali Mohammed Saeed’s Mosul 980; pictured, below); New Zealand (Pennie Hunt’s Milk); Russia (Irina Kholkina’s Carpe Diem; Sergey Bataev’s Old Warrior); U.K. (Max Mason’s Their War); Iran (Amir Gholami’s The Sea Swells); France (Raphaël Treiner’s Sursis); The Czech Republic (Tereza Hirsch’s Beyond Her Lens); India (Ashish Pandey’s Nooreh); and, Bulgaria (Iva Dimanova’s War Machine).
All films submitted are eligible for the Red Poppy Awards, which will be presented ahead of the Closing Night Film on November 9 at the Australian War Memorial. The award derives its name from a passage in the wartime poem ‘In Flanders Field’ which describes the flowers that grow quickly over the graves of the fallen. The lauded passage was written during the First World War by Canadian physician Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae after presiding over the funeral of friend Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, who died in the Second Battle of Ypres.
Inspired by 'In Flanders Fields', American professor Moina Michael resolved at the war's conclusion in 1918 to wear a red poppy year-round to honour the soldiers who had died in the war, a act of respect that has grown into a global movement today. Past winners of the Best Film Red Poppy include Joe Wright’s Darkest Hour (featuring Gary Oldmans’ Oscar-winning performance as Winston Churchill) and the LGTBIQ-themed documentary Transmilitary, from directors Gabriel Silverman and Fiona Dawson.
The VETERANS FILM FESTIVAL runs November 6-9 in Canberra. Full session and ticket iformation can be found at the official website.