Passchendaele (2008)

Gruelling depiction of two battles in 1917. Paul Gross wrote, produced and directed, as well as starring as Canadian soldier Michael Dunne. 

The middle section details a love story involving Dunne and a nurse called Sarah (Caroline Dhavernas). Their relationship is complicated by her troubled brother David (Joe Dinicol), who Dunne vows to protect. The narrative wrestles with notions of responsibility and duty set against the redemptive possibilities offered by love. 

It’s moving and harrowing. The film faithfully depicts the gruesome mud bath/bloodbath that saw 5,000 soldiers killed in 16 days, and the battle scenes look all too real. Only one thing doesn’t quite convince: you can see sunny skies in the background, even though it’s permanently raining. I wondered if that was an aesthetic choice, but the “making-of” feature on the DVD confirms that it was filmed in Canada and that the “rain” was just water being sprayed over the set.