Voir du Pays (2016)
Genre: Drama
Duration: 102 minuten
Alternative title: The Stopover
Country:
France / Greece
Directed by: Delphine Coulin and Muriel Coulin
Stars: Soko, Ariane Labed and Ginger Romàn
IMDb score:
6,2 (909)
Releasedate: 7 September 2016
Voir du Pays plot
Two young soldiers, Aurore and Marine, return home after a mission in Afghanistan. Together with their section, they first spend three days in a five-star hotel in Cyprus, among the other tourists, for what the army calls a "decompression SAS". They are helped to "forget the war". But it soon becomes apparent that they can't break free from the violence so quickly...
Actors and actresses
Marine
Aurore
Fanny
Max
Chrystos
Harry
Jonathan
Toni
Momo
Ness
Reviews & comments
hvdriel
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- 397 messages
- 357 votes
A good example of a well-intentioned film that eventually turns out to be a failure. French soldiers, on their way back from Afghanistan, have to process their war traumas in Cyprus in three days, after which they travel on to France. How would you build such a scenario? First pretend nothing is wrong, then vent your frustrations on the tourists in your vicinity, then on the inhabitants of Cyprus and finally on your fellow soldiers?
The soldiers tell in particular about one event that is visualized at the same time by means of a computer simulation. This is where the strength of the film lies and it produces moving scenes. But further? We go from one predictable event to the next, while every soldier - including the two young women - remains plastic and does not undergo any development. You see the actors playing troubled soldiers and not being them.
As is often the case with failed films, the directors pretend that the viewer is stupid, and so they emphatically take the viewer by the hand in image and sound. Also in this movie. Each event is announced in advance in a shot or scene and if we have not deduced the moral of it ourselves, then a film character will tell us afterwards what we could/should have seen.
Unfortunately. The subject is frustratingly topical, the computer simulation as therapy has been exploited beautifully and the re-experiencing account of the first soldier is moving. Everything else we know from hundreds of other films and books, and we call them clichés.
Translated from Dutch · View original
eRCee
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- 13450 messages
- 1981 votes
In my opinion, the reports here do not do justice to this excellent French film. Okay, if you tell a story about soldiers returning from a six-monthly mission to Afghanistan, then of course certain themes and developments are part of it. But the French approach is very different from the American one when it comes to military films. The duo Labed and Soko are central, two women, that's already refreshing, and their mutual dynamics are especially interesting. Just knowing that they're school friends only about half way through may sound silly, but that's a great way to grab attention. Placing this duo at the center creates an expansion of the well-known themes such as the wafer-thin war camaraderie (which also includes the testosterone bombs and half-psychopaths that an average army has). It's all well filmed, without really standing out. And finally, it is above all a very convincing Ariane Labed who carries and propels the film. Fascinating!
Translated from Dutch · View original
Dievegge
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- 3187 messages
- 8245 votes
Not very interesting. It's about the war, but you don't get to see the war, except for some simulated images on a screen. The Mediterranean environment looks nice, but in the end you're looking at talking heads. Post-traumatic stress in military personnel is a fierce subject, but in terms of its effect, there was more to do with it.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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