War Is Not a Game

Original Title: A la guerre comme à la guerre

87' | 2010 (Completed)

All images & Videos

(7 images)

Director:	Lode Desmet
Producer:	Kathleen de Béthune
Writer:	Lode Desmet

Full credits

2009 was a celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions. The aim of the treaties was to make wars more civilised. Did they succeed?

synopsis

In the decades that followed and as the 'art' of warfare further developed (technologically in the first place), this first treaty was adapted and refined - or completely new treaties were signed... About aerial bombardments for instance - first from balloons and then from airplanes... About landmines... About mustard gas and other chemical weapons... About the protection of citizens and the concept of genocide. The question arose: What about civil wars? What about resistance or guerrilla fighters? What about the uniformed personnel used by some armies today at their army barracks - personnel that officially are not part of the armed forces? What rules should govern wars against terrorists?

Credits

Director
Lode Desmet
Producer
Kathleen de Béthune
Writer
Lode Desmet
Editing
Linda Ibbari, Anne-Laure Guégan
Photography
Philippe Lavalette, Hans De Bauw
Sound
Cédric Mariotti, Arnaud Derimay, Martin Desranleau, Yannick Dox
Music
Serge Laforest, Martin Roullard

Format

Creation details

Type
Film
Category
Doc
Production share
Majority Flemish Production
Belgium
Genre
Year of production

2010
Production status
Completed
Original title
A la guerre comme à la guerre
Original language
Russian, Hebrish, Spanish and English

Technical specs

Running time
87'
Aspect ratio
16:9
Available formats
Digital Betacam
Colour
Colour

Contact & sales

Contact

Simple Production

Zavelput 29
1000 Brussel
Belgium

T +32 2 217 47 30
info@simpleproduction.be

www.simpleproduction.be

Details
Distribution
- Lichtpunt - Belgium
- ARTE France
- RTBF
- RTS
- DLA - Latin America
- Free Spech TV - USA
- CBC - Canada
- The Documentary Channel - USA
- DBS Satellite - Israël
- Telekanal Oykumena - Russia
- Telefonica Argentina

Festivals & awards

Festivals

War Is Not A Game was selected for IDFA 2011 in Amsterdam. It received the DOXA Film Festival Award for Most Creative Documentary in Vancouver and the YFF Best Historical Documentary Award in Yorkton. The film was nominated for the Prix Europa in Berlin and also won an award in France : l'Etoile de la Scam - the French author's rights organization.The DOXA Film Festival described the film as follows: "Lode Desmet's film is a scrupulous examination of the morality of combat. The interview subjects include former soldiers, mercenaries, guerrillas and peacekeepers; female bomber pilots serving in Afghanistan; and a Jewish-American lawyer who prosecuted Nazis at the Nuremberg tribunals. The interviews are deeply moving and provocative, as we hear tales of combat that complicate the notion of strict ethical codes. The film's subject is the intersection of abstract law and personal context, and Desmet pursues this dynamic across a broad swath of history, from World War II to Bosnia to the War on Terror. This is a disturbing, illuminating film that applies big questions to personal contexts, and vice versa."