SECTIONS // OFFICIAL COMPETITION FEATURE LENGTH

Of Men and War (Des hommes et de la guerre)

Laurent Bécue-Renard
142' / 2014 / France, Switzerland
Web: www.ofmenandwar.com
English
Spanish subtitled

Audience vote 7.29

Anger consumes a dozen combat vets long after their return from the front. The warriors in Of Men and War have come home to the United States, but their minds are stuck out on the battlefield. At ‘The Pathway Home’, a first-of- its-kind PTSD therapy center, the film’s protagonists resolve to end the ongoing destruction. Their therapist is a Vietnam vet himself, helping the young men forge meaning from their trauma.
Over years of therapy, Of Men and War explores their grueling paths to recovery, as they attempt to make peace with themselves, their past, and their families.

Main Festivals & Awards

Best Feature-Length Documentary - IDFA
Festivals: Cannes / IDFA / DocPoint / Göteborg / Zagrebdox / MoMADocumentaryFortnight / True/False / Full Frame / COLCOA / Visions du Réel / San Francisco / DOXA / Istanbul FF / DocumentaMadrid

Director's Biography

Laurent Bécue-Renard is a French director and producer. In 1995 and 1996, while living in Sarajevo during the siege, he served as editor-in-chief of the magazine Sarajevo Online and published a series of short stories called The Sarajevo Chronicles.
After the conflict, he began exploring war’s enduring impact on three widows at a rural therapy center. The documentary he wrote, directed, and produced about them, War-Wearied (De guerre lasses), screened at dozens of festivals and received the Berlin International Film Festival’s Peace Film Award, among others.
Shifting focus to young men returning from battles in faraway lands, Bécue-Renard continues to explore war’s psychological aftermath with Of Men and War, the second volume of his Genealogy of Wrath trilogy.