Of Men and War - 2014

Une douzaine de jeunes soldats tentent de retrouver une vie normale après leur retour du front.

– monté et produit (en tant qu’associé) par Isidore Bethel / aussi monté par Sophie Brunet et Charlotte Boigeol / réalisé et produit par Laurent Bécue-Renard (France) / produit (en tant qu’associé) par Thierry Garrel / co-produit par Heinz Dill et Elisa Garbar (Suisse)

– Alice Films, Louise Productions, Why Not Productions (distribution française), Kino Lorber (distribution états-unienne)

– diffusé sur POV (États-Unis), 25 nuances de doc (France 2), TVOntario (Canada), en streaming sur Netflix, Amazon, iTunes (États-Unis), Tënk (Francophone Europe)

– Festival de Cannes (sélection officielle), Documentary Fortnight au Museum of Modern Art, AFI Docs, Full Frame Documentary FF, Visions du Réel, Cinéma du Réel, DOK.fest Münich, Moscow IFF, DocumentaMadrid, Göteborg IFF (Suède), It’s All True (Brésil), Riviera Maya FF (Mexique), Jerusalem FF, Sydney FF, Istanbul FF, ZagrebDox (Croatie), DocPoint (Finlande), DocPoint Tallinn (Estonie), Guth Gafa IDF (Irlande), Belfast FF, DOXA (Canada), Dokufest (Kosovo), Human Rights AFF (Australie), Human Rights Watch FF (NYC), Docudays (Ukraine), TRT (Turquie), Open City DF (Royaume-Uni), Docs against Gravity (Pologne), Rendezvous with Madness FF (Canada), Erasmus – Jakarta DFF (Indonesie), Ambulante Colombia, COLCOA (États-Unis), Faito DOC (Italie), Foundation for Knowledge and Liberty screening (Haïti), entre autres

– Grand Prix à IDFA, New York Times Critics’ Pick, nomination du meilleur documentaire aux European Film Awards, mention spéciale au San Francisco IFF, Prix du documentaire de création au Little Rock FF

– 142 minutes

PRESSE :
– The New York Times: “This devastatingly raw documentary shows that for some the fighting may stop, but the suffering continues…Empathetic and rigorous, [Of Men and War] burns low and slow. It’s not an easy watch, but it is an enlightening one.”
– Los Angeles Times: Of Men and War, “following the vérité documentary style, refrains from identifying the men with on-screen text, save the times they refer to one another by name on camera, and the effect is shrewd. It serves to present what these veterans go through as less a spotlight on one corner of the war and a few of its sufferers, but something systemic we all should be thinking about.”
– New York Magazine’s Vulture: “Of Men and War’s compassion is matched only by its relentlessness.”
– The Hollywood Reporter: “A remarkable chronicle of Iraq War veterans suffering from the devastating effects of PTSD…[this] engrossing study of soldiers coping with trauma through intensive group therapy offers a rare look at real men shaken by real experiences, underlining the monumental courage it takes for them to get their lives back on track…[The film] has the depth and emotional weight of true fiction, yet also functions as a pure clinical inquiry into the psychological healing process that many veterans undergo…These are naturally gifted storytellers who honed their skills in combat, and the director, along with editors Isidore Bethel, Sophie Brunet, and Charlotte Boigeol, shapes years of discussions into a workable scenario with several plotlines, each of them showing the slow and steady progress — or regress — of its hero…The result is a rather unforgettable experience.”
– Variety: “Laurent Bécue-Renard’s rigorous war-trauma documentary provides vital testimony.”
– The Village Voice: “This film is raw in the truest sense, yet refined in its sympathy and scope. When the men confess violent visions and urges, it doesn’t make them ugly; what a relief to see something besides the chiseled, identical young soldiers on recruitment posters. What a relief to see ourselves, how we too might find it impossible to overcome flashbacks and go back to work or kiss our children or hold our partners’ hands. What a relief to see men standing in the far corners of the beige room, unable even to sit at the table, while others weep despite themselves. The honesty is hard to watch, but this film is not about voyeurism; it’s about bearing witness, about the possibility of change.”
– Slant: “A work of astounding sensitivity and precision, Of Men and War argues for emotional honesty as a moral and psychic imperative…Simply and profoundly humanistic, Of Men and War is a massive film wrought from tiny gestures.”
– #23 on Collider’s “35 Best Documentaries of the 2010s” list, a New York Times “great documentary to stream”