Battles

Story

War is never over. Its echo reverberates through peacetime too. Relics of battles and conflicts get buried in everyday life, even become part of it. With a patient, precise eye and a feel for whimsy and detail, the film follows the traces of war in four different places in Europe. A bunker in Albania is used by a family as a cowshed. The Belgian army detonates old ordinance. An army of seamstresses in Russia manufacture inflatable military equipment. And in Lithuania, tourists can rent a tent and spend time in a military training camp. Battles is film that observes, that takes the viewer to a world between past and present, deadly seriousness and fun, danger and innocence.

Director

Isabelle Tollenaere (*1984) studied documentary film at the Sint Lukas University in Brussels. Her work has been shown in the Centre Pompidou and at various festivals. At the Rotterdam film festival, Battles won the FIPRESCI Prize.

Trailer