At a time when a number of very real wars are flaring up and devastating too many regions of the world, today marks the first day of the 12th War on Screen gathering (unspooling 7 – 13 October), which is the only film festival wholly dedicated to providing a space to reflect upon conflict and its consequences. The event will feature Costa-Gavras (who’ll be delivering a masterclass) as its guest of honour and will present a hundred or so movies in the Châlons-en-Champagne showcase, including opening film The Flood [+lee también:
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entrevista: Gianluca Jodice
ficha de la película] by Italy’s Gianluca Jodice (unveiled in Locarno’s Piazza Grande) and Michel Hazanavicus Cannes competitor The Most Precious of Cargoes [+lee también:
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entrevista: Michel Hazanavicius
ficha de la película] occupying the festival’s closing slot.

Ten feature films are set to battle it out in competition, of which six are works of fiction, including French-German-Belgian co-production Rabia [+lee también:
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entrevista: Mareike Engelhardt
ficha de la película] by Mareike Engelhardt (recently awarded the Ornano-Valenti Prize in Deauville), From Hilde, With Love [+lee también:
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entrevista: Andreas Dresen
ficha de la película] by Germany’s Andreas Dresen (unveiled in competition at the Berlinale), The Fourth Wall [+lee también:
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entrevista: David Oelhoffen
ficha de la película] by French director David Oelhoeffen, Mexico 86 [+lee también:
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entrevista: César Díaz
ficha de la película] by Belgian-Guatemalan Cesar Diaz (screened in Locarno’s Piazza Grande) and two titles well-received in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section: The Damned [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Italy’s Roberto Minervini (who scooped the Best Director prize) and the majority European production The Village Next to Paradise [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Somalia’s Mo Harawe. Added to these are four documentaries: the German-American movie Hollywoodgate [+lee también:
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entrevista: Ibrahim Nash’at
ficha de la película] by Egypt’s Ibrahim Nash’at (presented out of competition in Venice), Intercepted [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Ukraine’s Oksana Karpovych (discovered in the Berlinale Forum), Journey Into Gaza by Italian-French director Piero Usberti, and French animated title Le Parfum d’Irak by Feurat Alami and Léonard Cohen.

Worth a mention in the Perspectives section are the Cannes attractions The Seed of the Sacred Fig [+lee también:
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entrevista: Directors Talks @ European…
entrevista: Mohammad Rasoulof
ficha de la película] by Iran’s Mohammad Rasoulof, Limonov: The Ballad [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Russia’s Kirill Serebrennikov, Ghost Trail [+lee también:
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entrevista: Jonathan Millet
entrevista: Pauline Seigland
ficha de la película] by French director Jonathan Millet, In His Own Image [+lee también:
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entrevista: Thierry de Peretti
ficha de la película] by fellow Frenchman Thierry de Peretti, and Meeting With Pol Pot [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by French-Cambodian director Rithy Panh, not to mention the documentaries Bye Bye Tibériade [+lee también:
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entrevista: Lina Soualem
ficha de la película] by French-Algerian filmmaker Lina Soualem and Voyage Along the War [+lee también:
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entrevista: Antonin Peretjatko
ficha de la película] by France’s Antonin Peretjako, among other works.

The jam-packed War on Screen agenda also includes a modest retrospective entitled "War through the eyes of… Frederick Wiseman", as well as special screenings of the immersive fiction film Champ de bataille, directed by François Vautier (who’ll also be delivering a masterclass on “How to film war in Virtual Reality") and the first two episodes of season 2 of Jean-Philippe Amar’s Sentinelles series.

The remainder of the festival’s copious line-up falls under a variety of sections by the names of "Rock N’War/Art N’War" (featuring the documentaries Dahomey [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by French-Senegalese director Mati Diop, Ernest Cole, Lost and Found [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Haiti’s Raoul Peck and Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat [+lee también:
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entrevista: Johan Grimonprez
ficha de la película] by Belgium’s Johan Grimonprez), "Shared Memories", "Space Conquest: between progress and propaganda",  "80th Anniversary of the Liberation",  "30 Years Since the Tutsi Genocide in Rwanda" and "Natural Environment, Paradoxes and Emergencies #3 - the neo-detective movie has returned: water and corruption".