Triage: Overview

January 3rd, 2010

Triage
Director: Danis Tanovic
Country: Ireland/France/Spain
Year: 2009
Runtime: 99 minutes
Genre: Drama
Cast: Colin Farrell, Jamie Sives, Paz Vega, Christoper Lee
Screening Times: Thursday, February 25, 7:00 p.m. Rated 14A

Buy tickets from Cinematheque Ontario

Synopsis:
Two expert war photographers, Mark and David, are working in war torn Kurdistan. Mark is highly ambitious and wants to pursue the fighting in search of the ultimate shot but David has had enough of it all and leaves to go home to his pregnant wife Diane. When Mark returns bloody and bruised to his home in Ireland a few days later, he is shocked to hear David hasn’t made it home. Exhausted, disorientated, obsessed by ghosts of violence and unable to pick up his old life with Elena, the man visibly deteriorates. In hospital, the doctors conclude that his paralysis is a psychological problem linked to something that happened to David, which Mark does not want to remember. It will be discovered by Joaquin, an elder psychiatrist specializing in war injuries who previously worked in the “recovery” of war criminals after the Spanish Civil War. American journalist Scott Anderson, author of the eponymous novel, collaborated with the writing of the film’s screenplay.

Director’s Biography:
Danis Tanovic was born in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and studied music, engineering and film there before war broke out in 1992. He left Sarajevo to study directing at L’Institut National Supérieur des Arts du Spectacle et des Techniques de Diffusion (INSAS) in Brussels. His documentary shorts include Portraits d’artistes pendant la guerre (94), L’Aube (96) and Ça ira (98). No Man’s Land (01), his first feature, screened as a Gala presentation at the 2001 Toronto International Film Festival and won the Academy Award® for best foreign-language film in 2002. His other films include a segment in the omnibus film 11′09”01 (02) and the features L’Enfer (05) and Triage (09).

Film Festivals:
Toronto International Film Festival, Toronto, Canada, September 2009
Rome Film Festival, Rome, Italy, October 2009
Sevilla International Film Festival, Seville, Spain, November 2009
Toronto Human Rights Watch Film Festival, Toronto, Canada, February 2010

Media Coverage:
Hollywood Reporter: Triage — Film Review
Screen Daily: Triage — Film Review
Vanity Fair: Triage Review: Should I Quit My Job to Become a War Reporter?
Variety: Triage — Film Review

Other:
Triage Movie Fan Supporters

Overview by Julie Giles