Tobias Lindholm, writer-director of “A War,” the Danish nominee for the Best Foreign Language Oscar, refused to make an antiwar film about Afghanistan. “The conversation has been trapped in whether you’re for or against the war,” said Lindholm told TheWrap awards editor Steve Pond Tuesday at Los Angeles’ Ipic Theater for TheWrap’s Screening Series. “We don’t need to be screaming at each other about some political opinion, we have to confront what we’re part of and learn from that.”
To lend realism to his fictional war-crime story, Lindholm spent a year interviewing a dozen Danish veterans of the Afghan war, and also Afghans in the region where the Danes fought and died.
“I had the structure of the story — a commander making a decision to save his men and risking lives of civilians — and we started to fill out that canvas with anecdotes I got from the soldiers.”
He didn’t want to focus on one soldier’s story. “I would feel like a parasite diving down into someone’s nightmare like that.” Instead, he dramatized the moral crisis of a fictional commander (Pilou Asbaek) who calls in an air strike that kills innocent children but saves a wounded Danish soldier, and wove real stories into the narrative. “It’s all bits and pieces,” said Lindholm.
When he interviewed a Taliban member, Lindholm dreaded telling the veterans he’d recruited their erstwhile enemy for “A War.” “I had loyal troops in Denmark helping me make that film. I didn’t know how to make that phone call. How do you tell them you’re working with a guy you were fighting against a couple years earlier, a guy who possibly killed their friends? They all agreed to meet with him. We went to Turkey and had tea with him. One of the Danes said, ‘Don’t worry, I understand this guy better than you, because he actually fought there, you stayed home.’ It’s a complex situation, and my responsibility was to drag that complexity inside the camera.”
To ramp up the realism of the war scenes filmed in Turkey, where the Syrian war had recently erupted and Turk authorities blocked delivery of any ammunition for the battle scenes for the first five days of shooting, Lindholm used a handheld camera, creating a highly convincing, utterly immersive cinematic experience.
“We used three versions of the handheld camera,” said Lindholm, “a hectic camera in the war scenes, a kid’s-POV camera [for scenes of the commander’s children at home in Denmark], a little lower — a more naive camera, you could say — and in the courtroom scenes we wouldn’t move the cameras at all. The courtroom is cold, it’s an ice world.”
For the judge in the court scenes, Lindholm cast an actual jurist. “She was a real judge, retired two weeks before. I was just the director’s assistant for these scenes, she was pretty strict.” To keep the actors spontaneous on the battlefield, he did not warn them where or when explosions would occur.
To attain a like explosiveness in courtroom scenes, he kept the trial’s outcome secret from the cast. “I never gave the actors the last five pages of the script.” They discover the commander’s fate on camera. “The expression on their faces is so real — we manipulated it,” said Lindholm. “The logic was that when I wanted the emotions to be inside the character, we would just not move the camera that much. Hopefully the eyes and the faces of these people would tell us whatever’s going on.”
Viewers respond to the tension Lindholm orchestrates, alternating scenes of the battle, the trial and the commander’s traumatized wife and children back home. Lindholm recalled that at the Venice world premiere, after a scene where a soldier nicknamed The Butcher does something dramatic to save a buddy, 500 people applauded, yelling “Bravo Butcher!”
The soldier’s name is intentionally misleading: He’s not a violent man, as we would expect in a war movie, he simply grew up in a butcher shop. And yet, the soldier (and the audience) are effectively applauding war criminals. “The scene where The Butcher offers comfort to another soldier was taken directly from ‘Restrepo’ [the 2011 Oscar nominated documentary about the Afghan war],” said Lindholm. “It was the first time I’d ever seen a human reaction in combat — I’d only had references to war films.” Lindholm wanted “A War” to be true to such small moments with huge moral impact. “We wanted the real deal,” said Lindholm.
“My mother is a classic Scandinavian socialist,” he added. “I thought, if I could make her sympathetic to war criminals, then I would have done my job.” And did he succeed in making his mom root for the bad/good guys, as so many viewers do? “She’s torn,” he said, smiling. “She wants to be proud [of the film], but at the same time, she won’t admit it.”
Oscar Nominee Snubs and Surprises: Ridley Scott, Sylvester Stallone and 17 More (Photos)
SURPRISE: Tom Hardy, nominated Best Actor, “The Revenant” Leonardo DiCaprio has dominated conversations surrounding the grueling shoot and high art of "The Revenant," but Hardy suffered right alongside him -- and was rewarded with a Best Supporting Actor nomination.
Fox
SNUB: "Carol," not nominated Best Picture Todd Haynes' dreamy period piece fetched acting, score and cinematography nominations but was shut out of the Best Picture race.
TWC
SURPRISE: "Ex Machina," nominated, Best Visual Effects Alex Garland’s dystopian love story drew a nomination for Best Visual Effects over Colin Trevorrow’s record-setting “Jurassic World,” which is literally filled with screaming, stomping, fighting dinosaurs.
Universal
SNUB: Ridley Scott, not nominated Best Director, "The Martian" The exclusion of Ridley Scott from the Best Director category is enough to make you want to move to Mars. While the longtime movie maestro claimed a Golden Globe award, he was left off of the 2016 list entirely, presumably bumped by surprise nominee Lenny Abrahamson.
Fox
SURPRISE: Sylvester Stallone, nominated Best Actor in a Supporting Role, "Creed" Conversations on Ryan Coogler’s “Creed” never roared like an audience at a Las Vegas bout, but here we are — Rocky Balboa himself is headed to the Dolby Theater as Sylvester Stallone joins a Best Supporting Actor category that includes Mark Ruffalo and Christian Bale.
Warner Bros.
SNUB: Idris Elba, not nominated Best Actor, “Beasts of No Nation” The excessively likable and highly pedigreed Elba could not earn a spot among the Best Actor crowd for “Beasts of No Nation” despite his edgy positioning with hot director Cary Fukunaga and streaming release platform Netflix.
Netflix
SURPRISE: Lenny Abrahamson, nominated Best Director, "Room" Sure, the director’s “Room” is an emotional marathon and, frankly, a technical feat for creating a universe within those tiny walls -- but it was surely a surprise to hear his name called for Best Director over Ridley Scott’s.
TheWrap
SNUB: “See You Again,” not nominated Best Original Song, "Furious 7" Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth’s “Furious 7” anthem served not only as a radio hit but also a tribute to the late Paul Walker. It was all but guaranteed that the creative eyebrows of Puth and NBA-level tattoos of Khalifa would suit up to claim a Best Original Song Oscar come February. Sorry boys, maybe we’ll see you again.
Universal
SNUB: Amy Schumer, not nominated Best Original Screenplay, "Trainwreck" America’s acidic sweetheart Schumer was a fledgling leading lady in Universal’s “Trainwreck,” but had a serious shot at Best Original Screenplay for her comedy with Bill Hader and Brie Larson.
Universal
SURPRISE: “Inside Out,” nominated Best Original Screenplay Any Pixar film is a presumed nominee if not winner, but it was unexpected to see the Amy Poehler-fronted film nominated for Best Original Screenplay. We imagine all the writers attached are feeling only Joy.
Disney
SNUB: Johnny Depp, not nominated Best Actor, “Black Mass" Forget the Ed Harris makeup — Johnny Depp did an extraordinary job playing Whitey Bulger in Warner Bros. “Black Mass.” Many thought the A-lister would be among peers like Leonardo DiCaprio in the Best Actor category.
Warner Bros.
SURPRISE: Charlotte Rampling, nominated Best Actress, "45 Years" Charlotte Rampling was nominated for her role in "45 years" in the Best Actress category along with Jennifer Lawrence, Cate Blanchett, Brie Larson and Saoirse Ronan. Rampling was a strong contender in October, but no one really talked about the film throughout the rest of award season. For example, she didn't receive a Golden Globe or SAG nomination.
Artificial Eye
SNUB: Will Smith, not nominated Best Actor, "Concussion" He delivered a spectacular performance as Dr. Bennet Omalu in "Concussion," but Will Smith didn't receive a nomination in the Best Actor category despite making everyone's radar following his Golden Globes nom.
Sony/Columbia
SURPRISE: "The 100-Year Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared," nominated Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling For the Danish film to be nominated at all came as a complete surprise because most hadn't even heard of this film. Released in May in only 76 theaters, it grossed $944,000 dollars. It took the place within the Makeup and Hairstyling category of films like "Cinderella," "The Danish Girl," "Ex Machina," "Black Mass" and "Star Wars," which all received Makeup Guild Awards nominations.
Music Box Films
SNUBS: "Peanuts"/"Minions"/"Good Dinosaur," not nominated Best Animated Feature Those three films were left out of the nominations for Best Animated Feature, replaced by surprises "Boy and the World" and "When Marnie Was There." "Minions" is an especially surprising omission because it made $336 million domestically and broke several box office records for Universal at the time.
Universal/Fox/Pixar
SNUB: Aaron Sorkin, not nominated Best Screenplay, "Steve Jobs" Sorkin is known as one of the best living screenwriters, and his adaptation of Walter Isaacson's "Steve Jobs" was one of this year's most anticipated scripts. Sorkin also received praise for the unique structure he established for the film, receiving a Golden Globe award for Best Screenplay on Jan. 10.
Getty Images
SNUB: Todd Haynes, not nominated Best Director, "Carol" Many who saw the film "Carol," starring lead and supporting actress nominees Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, praised it for how artfully it was put together. That makes Haynes' absence in the Best Director field perplexing.
Getty Images
SNUB: Steven Spielberg, not nominated Best Director, "Bridge of Spies" Spielberg directed "Bridge of Spies," one of the most well-received films of the year, yet, the two-time Oscar winner was left out of the Best Director category by the Academy this year.
Getty Images
SNUB: Tom Hanks, not nominated Best Actor, "Bridge of Spies" The two-time Academy Award winner delivered another stellar performance in "Bridge of Spies," but didn't receive a Best Actor nomination for the film, despite its six total noms. The film's supporting actor, Mark Rylance, was nominated for an Oscar this year.
Disney
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The Academy sprung some last-minute names — and shut out sure things from awards season