In 1982, Argentina and UK fought the Malvinas Falklands War. The war ended with the British military victory and took about 1.000 lives, both British and Argentinean. While the conflict took place years ago, the sovereignty of the islands is still in dispute.

Theatre of War tells the story of how six veterans from the Malvinas/ Falklands War came together to make a film. Almost thirty-five years after the conflict, three British and three Argentine veterans spent months together discussing their war memories and then rehearsing their re-enactment.

This film is a way of showing the whole social experiment of making an artistic project with one-time enemies of war: the auditions to find the protagonists, the first meetings and discussions with them, the theatrical re-enactments of their memories in different scenarios: a swimming pool, a construction site, a military regiment. All the scenes in the film are at the same time authentic and artificial. Sometimes it looks like it’s happening for the first time, sometimes it’s a highly rehearsed situation.

The film playfully switches between reality and fiction, spontaneity and acting. It explores how to transform a soldier into an actor, how to turn war experiences into a story, how to show the collateral effects of war. The movie brings together former enemies to perform their wartime and post-war nightmares.

Creditos

Written and directed by Lola Arias.
With Lou Armour, David Jackson, Rubén Otero, Sukrim Rai, Gabriel Sagastume, Marcelo Vallejo.
Produced by Gema Juárez Allen and Alejandra Grinschpun.
Coproduced by Bettina Walter, Ingmar Trost, Pedro Saleh.

Project doctor Alan Pauls
Director of Photography and Camara / Artistic collaboration Manuel Abramovich
Gaffer and additional camera Armin Marchesini Weihmuller
Gaffer Francisco Nishimoto
Camara assistants Agustín Boero, Camila López Pozner, Ayelén López
Runner Manuel Berisso
Editing Anita Remón, Alejo Hoijman
Editing assistants Noelia Couto, Verónica de Cata
Research Luz Algranti and Sofía Medici
Artistic assistance Lucila Piffer
Artistic advice Alejo Moguillansky and Graciela Speranza
Sound design Sofía Straface (ASA)
Sound recording Julia Huberman, Martín Vaisman, Pablo Trilnik
Sound recording assistants Maximiliano Llovet Menesses, Paula Ramírez, Nicolás Yaya, Diego Sánchez, Joaquín Rajadle, Nicolás de la Valentina
Foley artist Francisco Rizzi (ASA)
Foley recordist:Martín Scaglia (ASA)
Dialogue mixer Lucas Meyer (ASA)
Re-recording mixer Sebastián González (ASA)
Re-recording studio El cono del silencio
Color grading Laura Viviani, Crows Nest PCG
Production coordinators Carla Rosmino, Francisco Novick
Line producer Adrián Fiszbejn
Production runners Agustina Barzola Würth, Imanol López
Production Intern Valentín Álvarez Such
Post production supervisor and VFX producer Leandro Vitali, Pedro Lijeron Vargas
Post production consultant Leo Hans, Jonathan smecke
Make-up artist Soledad Alonso
Camera Munich Mikko Gaestel
Sound recording Munich: Drik Krecker
Graphic designer Diego Berakha
Credits designer Agustín Ceretti
Translators and interpreters Erika Teichert, Ana Victoria Quiroz, James Albert Surges, Laxcha Bantawa, Michel Steinberg, Daniel Tunnard

This film was selected for the 68 Berlinale Forum (DE) and SXSW 2018 (US).

It received the CICAE Award and the Award of the Ecumenical Jury at 68 Berlinale.