Se Ypres fu una mattanza, Passchendaele fu l’inferno all’interno di quella mattanza. Difficilmente la storia ha visto mai un tale scempio. Si dice che un generale inglese in visita al fronte, dopo essersi reso conto dell’inferno a cui aveva condannato i suoi uomini mandandoli all’assalto, si mise a piangere come un bambino.
Paul Gross scrive, dirige, produce ed interpreta. È un modo di espiare nei confronti del nonno, che nell’inferno ci fu ed ebbe la fortuna di tornare indietro, con la condanna di riviverlo giorno per giorno:
This film was inspired by Gross’s relationship with his maternal grandfather, Michael Joseph Dunne, who served in the 56th, 5th, 14th and 23rd Reserve Battalions, CEF, in the First World War. Like many veterans, he was reticent about sharing his experiences with his family. In a rare conversation on a fishing trip; Dunne told the story of bayonetting a young German soldier, who had eyes like water, through the head and killing him during a battle. A long time later, as Dunne lay in a hospital bed in the last days of his life, his family was mystified by Dunne’s behaviour of asking for forgiveness, over and over. Only Gross knew that he was speaking to the young German he had killed.
"He went completely out of his mind at the end. He started telling me about a hideous event that happened during a skirmish in a little ruined town in World War I. He'd killed someone in a miserable, horrible way and that had obviously haunted him throughout the rest of his life. As my grandfather died, in his mind he was back in that town, trying to find a German boy whom he'd bayonetted in the forehead. He'd lived with that memory all his life – and he was of a time when people kept things to themselves. When he finally told the story, it really affected me and I've not been able to get it out of my head."
Il film è molto ben realizzato, anche se il set è tutto ricreato in Canada, ma rimane qualcosa di stupefacente. Le interpretazioni sono valide, tra l’altro molte delle oltre 200 comparse erano soldati canadesi di ritorno dall’Afghanistan, che hanno lavorato praticamente gratis. Peccato che il tutto venga rovinato dalla solita sottotrama d’amore tipica dei film americani, ciononostante merita assolutamente.
Il bluetto, merita e si trova a poco, anche su Play.com:
E` purtroppo sprovvisto di subs, ma è un Inglese capibile, e c’è un bel doc di mezzora sulla lavorazione.