The War Zone

CINEMA ATTRACTS more over-the-top descriptions than most artistic media: we apply the words ‘hard-hitting’ and ‘harrowing’ to practically any film that shows us things we don’t want to see, no matter how trivial the context. When really harrowing and disturbing movies are offered up for our appraisal, they tend to leave us stuck for words. Silence enveloped the dozen or so critics who filed out after The War Zone’s press screening – there was nothing anyone could say.

Tim Roth’s directorial debut is an exhausting, emotionally demanding, painful and profoundly human piece of work, but it’s doubtful whether anyone could (or should) enjoy it.

The film documents the chilling lives of a family of middle-class Londoners who have moved to Devon – a family with a pitch-black secret at its core. Dad (Ray Winstone), unbeknownst to his wife and son, is regularly raping his 18-year-old daughter (Lara Belmont) – and as his son (the brooding, sullen Freddie Cunliffe) begins to open his eyes to what’s going on, the film embarks on a slow descent into hell.

Roth’s direction successfully strives to make this one of gloomiest films of all time. Visually, it couldn’t be less inviting if it tried – the family home is perpetually enveloped in virtual darkness, and even the outdoor scenes are all bathed in bleakest grey, with rain perpetually lashing down and waves crashing endlessly against the craggy coastline. Sonically, its chief characteristic is a truly deafening silence, broken only by bursts of terse dialogue. Emotionally, it is quite the most gruelling endurance test you’ve had to face since your last engagement collapsed. This all comes to a head in ‘the bunker scene’ which will eternally sear the memory of all who witness it. Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.

No-one should expect entertainment from The War Zone, and a probable majority of you would find it, literally, too much to handle. However, it is a hugely powerful film. One would like to think that Roth’s directing career will see him exploring greener pastures in the years to come, but his early warning is a film of phenomenal emotional impact.