Film Review: Triage - a Homage to the Horrors of War

Deep in the mountains of Kurdistan, a doctor makes a brutal selection between life and death, and a war photographer witnesses terrors which haunt him upon his return to the world of peace.

In the war-torn mountains of Kurdistan, a photographer seeks the perfect image, while a doctor battles to save as many of his patients as he possibly can. This escapist battle against the odds is Triage, the movie which brings Oscar-winner Danis Tanovic back to the big screen.

After winning the Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2002 for No Man’s Land, in 2002, Tanovic shot one of the segments of ‘September 11’ an international collaboration from 11 directors and in 2005, directed a French film based on scenario by the late Krzysztof Kieslowski,  L’Enfer.
 
Tanovic’s return to the war genre could not be more intense than Triage, where he follows the path of Colin Farrell, playing Mark Walsh, a photographer addicted to war reporting. In 1988, he embarks with his colleague on a journey to Kurdistan, where fighting is intensifying.

They camp at a hospital in a mountain cave, led by Dr. Talzani, played by Branko Djuric-Djuro.
 
Talzani is notorious for his classification system for wounded men brought into the cave – yellow and blue stripes.  

Those marked with yellow are operated on and have the chance to live. Those marked with blue are beyond salvation and the doctor personally takes a gun and shoots all the blue-stripers.
 
This story originated in the mind of Scott Anderson, who previously wrote The Hunting Party, an attempt to capture Karadzic in post-war Bosnia, but more notably he has produced works focusing on Beirut, Northern Ireland, Chechnya, Israel, Sudan, Sarajevo and El Salvador, all places he has worked as a war correspondent.
 
The dialogues and  scenery are very convincing, but the acting of Branko Djuric is less so. He has so little presence on the big screen, that it sometimes seems as if he has stepped out of an episode of Nadrealisti, a lightweight Yugoslav sketch show which he created.

He tries hard to master the English language, but his accent remains Sarajevo-based, making his embodiment of a doctor in mountains of Kurdistan even less believable.

Shortly after Mark and and his colleague, David, visit the front line, the story takes a drastic turn, as Mark is brought to Talzani’s hospital, with severe wounds. Here we see some of Tanovic’s skills in a beautifully shot scene where we see Mark waking, to see one of the warriors singing a prayer into the desert night.
 
Once recovered, Mark goes home to his fiancee, Elena, played woodenly by popular Spanish actress Paz Vega. As the state of his psyche grows worse, Elena calls her grandfather, a psychiatrist, and, while Elena discusses his role in re-habilitating protagonists from the Spanish Civil War, we have the pleasure of watching Christopher Lee, aged 86, deliver a tight, focused, cameo.

Although Lee is best known for his embodiment of Dracula, here, he adds credibility and depth to the film as he takes Mark on a roller coaster of psychological games that are to reveal the painful truth of what happened to Mark on the frontline and why David has not returned home with him.

Tanovic, no doubt, feels very close to the storyline, having witnessed war first hand in his native Bosnia, and the way in which he conveys images of fighting is truly genuine.

He has professionally and seamlessly woven the two stories of the narrative into one and portrays the topic of post-traumatic stress in Anderson’s book faithfully, in an almost scholarly manner, something which is not always very filmic.
 
When Farrell and Lee take the screen we see technically correct film-making, but with a lot more potential to develop. Gaps are visible in the performances of other actors, and in some overly intense emotional scenes from Farrell.
 
What we see in the end, is an overacted mosaic with some nice images, decent rhythm and good insight into war psychology. Gutsy and at times brutal, the movie ultimately falls short as these parts remain separate and distinct and have not been holistically combined.  You should perhaps consider waiting for the next film by this promising Bosnian director.

Triage was shown at Cinemania in Belgrade’s Sava Centar. The distributors say it will be on show at cinemas nationwide from January 28th.