Berlin - It was a meeting with a severely wounded soldier in a US army hospital that American actor Ben Foster said helped him in his role as an officer who delivers the message to families that their loved ones have been killed in combat.
US actors Woody Harrelson (R) and Ben Foster (L) and director Oren Moverman arrive at the premiere of their film 'The Messenger' at the 59th Berlin International Film Festival in Berlin, Germany, 09 February 2009. The film runs in the Competition for the Silver and Golden Bears of the 59th Berlinale. EPA/ARNO BURGI
'He was very forthright about his experiences,' said 28-year-old Foster about the young soldier who had a lost leg in fighting in Iraq and whose name was Will.
Foster is also called Will in Israeli-born screenwriter-turned-director Oren Moverman's The Messenger, which also stars US actor Woody Harrelson and which was screened at the Berlin Film Festival.
After a slew of movies about the Iraq war, moviemakers are now turning their attention to the human fallout back home from the conflict as a new White House Administration considers steps for pulling home the troops.
As was the case with World War II and the Vietnam conflict, said Moverman, there 'is a tendency to shift the spotlight to what happens on the home front,' adding that the US had still not started to grapple with the human problems caused by the Iraq war.
A strong advocate for peace, 48-year-old Harrelson said he had also been touched by the wounded soldiers he had meet in preparing for the film. 'I have a lot of respect for these people,' he said.
Little Soldier from Danish director Annette K. Olesen, another film in the Berlinale's main competition this year, is also about a traumatized soldier returning home to Denmark after a foreign mission.
Moverman told a press conference marking The Messenger's Berlinale screening that his film was about 'the consequences of the decision to go to war.'
After returning from service in Iraq, Foster's character Will Montgomery is assigned to the innocuous sounding casualty notification team to work alongside Harrelson's older Captain Tony Stone.
Their job is to face up to the families with the grim news that their loved ones have died in action.
'It's a tough job,' said Moverman. 'The soldiers are not trained for it.'
'We've all had the phone call that we lost someone,' said Foster. 'That is just a part of being mortal,' he said.
Moverman said that the army had supported his movie project because he said, 'there is a lot of pride' in the job. It is seen as an honour, he said.
Indeed, the task Will is told early in the film be his senior officer 'is not just important but it is sacred' with Tony laying down strict rules on how the news to be conveyed to the relatives.
For instance, euphemisms like passed away are not to be used and there is to be no contact with the NOK (next of kin).
'There is no such thing as a satisfied customer,' Tony tells his new offsider after one early traumatic visit to the NOK and as the two slowly form a bond of friendship.
Strongly played by Foster, Will has been both physically and psychologically damaged by his time in Iraq, escaping into heavy rock music as he attempts to regain a foothold in normal life.
But The Messenger quietly tells its story, which is not about American military heroism or patriotism.
Moverman's film even mocks US middle class platitudes about support for the country's soldiers during a time of war as it takes the audience on a tour of the sometimes low-income backgrounds that produce the country's modern soldiers.
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