https://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/shadowsofwar

Can we imagine a world without war? How many nations divided by religion and political ideology have fought for unity and lost? With the ongoing violence and widening conflict in the Middle East, three years after Russia declared war on Ukraine and 50 years since the end of the war in Vietnam, we still open our newspapers to images of the aftermath of violence and bloodshed. Cinema has a long history of depicting the drama of war. Rather than focusing on the battlefield, on which Hollywood has spawned plenty of movies, this series will examine the impact of war on the human psyche and feature films that tell stories of divided families, friends and lovers, human resilience and solidarity when confronting oppression, resistance to occupation, and ultimately unity in the face of tragedy. The lectures will look at the impact of partitions, divided borders, territorial conflicts, violent uprisings, and civil war as they are played out in historical dramas in an attempt to reflect critically yet objectively on current divisions around the globe.