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War Story
A war photographer, Lee goes to Sicily instead of going back home in New York to forget about being taken hostage in Libya. On the way, she crosses paths with her former lover and mentor Albert and tries to help Hafsia, a young Tunisian migrant escape to France. Lee realizes Hafsia has a striking resemblance to a Libyan girl Lee photographed just before, the incidental meeting evokes her memories about time of detainment in Libya…
18 September 1978, Serradifalco, Sicily, Italy
31 December 1943, Scarborough, Yorkshire, England, UK
16 November 1970, Catania, Sicily, Italy
25 January 1987, Manosque, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France
1 January 1973, Messina, Sicily, Italy
30 March 1966, Palermo, Sicily, Italy
23 March 1959, Miami, Florida, USA
June 21, 2016
War Story provides a refreshingly specific, restrained story of loss and recovery in the boundaries of battle.July 30, 2014
Infuriatingly slow, enervating and basically empty contemplation of war's impact, and a waste of the formidable talent of a gallant Catherine Keener.August 01, 2014
There's minimalist filmmaking that's quietly intriguing, and then there's emotional detachment that's stultifying to the point of being nap-inducing. War Story falls into the latter category.May 19, 2014
Mark Jackson's War Story functions as a languid visual essay that passively contemplates Lee's warped psychological state, while avoiding any exposition of the events that triggered her present state of mind.July 31, 2014
Catherine Keener rarely gets the chance to grab the spotlight all for herself. That makes this turgid drama especially disappointing.August 04, 2014
Jackson's spare, quietly powerful sophomore feature demonstrates an impressive control of mood and tone and the ability to tell a story largely without words.July 31, 2014
So often does Catherine Keener play snappish or smart-mouthed characters that it's startling to see her behaving so tired and ragged throughout much of War Story.July 31, 2014
In Keener's hands, the collapse feels urgent but not unhinged, and Lee's trajectory from steely and determined to openly distraught lends an otherwise meandering film a strong core.July 31, 2014
Indie dramas don't get much more oppressively dreary than War Story, a film every bit as distinctive and exciting as its generic title suggests.August 07, 2014
For much of the early going it's the burdened physicality that Keener brings to the role that tells us everything we need to know.July 27, 2014
Mark Jackson's direction strips much of the agency from any character's grasp by insisting that their dilemmas can only be revealed with stone-faced austerity.