10/06/2022 - Florian Hoffmann blends documentary war footage with fiction tackling issues such as grief, disinformation and media manipulation

Last Wednesday 8 June, the 24th edition of the German Film Fest Madrid (read more) opened with Whispers of War [+see also:
interview: Florian Hoffmann
film profile], the first feature-length fiction film by Florian Hoffman, who attended the Spanish event to present it, followed by a discussion with the audience, who took a keen interest in the issues raised.

Starting from his own personal relationship with the exiled Kurds in Germany, Hoffmann unravels different conflicts that affect his central character, Khalil (played by Hadi Khanjanpour), a teacher in Berlin who has lost his family during the clashes with Turkey and who cannot come to terms with the death of his sister, of which he is not entirely convinced. But one day he thinks he discovers her alive in some images on social media, spiralling into a dramatic loop that will lead him to cross several dangerous lines.

One of which - taking little notice of the warning from someone who tells him, “don’t let war corrupt you" - is his involvement in a conflict that will put him at odds with acquaintances and close friends. The tension of the film increases as the character, from his distance and powerlessness, also infiltrates another tricky area: (mis)information and its manipulation.

Because, as Hoffmann said in Madrid, we, as spectators, are continually requesting more striking and spectacular images (Apocalypse Now style, as someone pointed out from the screen). So, is it permissible to alter reality in order to draw attention to certain issues, where is the line between the ethical and the morbid, and is fake news already taking up too much space in the news? The film joins the critique of the social and political responsibility of the media, a subject addressed by Sidney Lumet’s classic Network, un mundo implacable and Bruno Dumont’s recent France [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bruno Dumont
film profile], among others.

And the third major issue with Whispers of War is grief and how it is handled. In armed clashes between the Turkish army and the Kurds, soldiers made the bodies of the dead disappear and their families never got to see their bodies, unable to say goodbye to them. The same thing happens to the protagonist with his sister, clinging to the idea that she is still alive: to keep that hope alive he will do the impossible, with highly dramatic results.

Finally, it is worth noting how the director/screenwriter of this film has combined and assembled its documentary aspect (images of the conflict provided by Kurdish video activists) and a fiction based on the psychology of its central character. The result is a film that, without any narrative flourish, manages to maintain the tension, exposing the suffering of the Kurdish people and opening up discussions that are even more interesting than the film itself.

Whispers of War (to be released in Germany this Autumn) is a production by Chromosom Film GmbH, which is also managing its international sales.

(Translated from Spanish by Vicky York)