Keswick Film Festival

Synopsis

The winner of the 2011 Oscar for the “best foreign film". Can we build a better world by helping our tormentors or fighting them? Two contrasting stories are counterpoised, the link being that the fathers of two boys take the opposite view to their sons. We see one of the fathers working as a Doctor in Africa facing the dilemma ‘should he help an injured warlord or not?’ (if you saw ‘Of Gods and Men’ last season you might guess what his decision is), whilst the boys decision to fight back against the school bully has different consequences. ‘Is violence so deeply ingrained in the human character that even the best of us will embrace it? Or can we transcend our instincts and find a higher law?’ - A.O.Scott, New York Times

Using the internal family arguments to juxtapose the political ones, maybe Bier has made the allegory too obvious? You will have to come along to find out for yourself.