One of the Oscar nominees for Best Foreign Language Film at this year’s Academy Awards comes from Denmark, and with a delicate sensitivity and commanding presence, A War tells the story of one soldier’s dealings with the repercussions of a life-changing, split second decision and its effects on the people he loves and supports. It is an unglamorous, yet extremely truthful, look at everyday life during wartime and how some of the toughest battles begin after the fighting has ceased.

Setting up the first scene with extreme intensity, a young soldier’s legs blown off by an IED during a routine outing near their base in an Afghan province. Blood is everywhere, body parts lay amongst the desert sand, and company commander Claus M. Pedersen (Pilou Asbæk) is informed shortly after that the man has bled out and died. A young man himself, Pedersen is deeply affected by the loss but as the leader, he shoulders the emotional outcry from his fellow soldiers. Behind the tough exterior is a sensitive soul who just wants to make it back home to his family.

Meanwhile, back in Denmark, Pedersen’s wife Maria (Tuva Novotny) struggles to take care of their three young children alone. The middle son acts out at school, a direct result of not having his dad around, and she relies heavily on her eldest daughter to help out with the toddler. Balancing both the maternal and paternal roles have Maria exhausted and her patience wearing thin; the sporadic phone calls from her husband are the only things keeping her going.   

Claus and Maria are both looking forward to his return home, which is only weeks away when a routine safety patrol of the local Afghani civilians turns into an unexpected crossfire, which forces Claus to make a difficult decision that results in unimaginable consequences for both his family on the battleground and his family back home.

Director Tobias Lindholm brings the intensity both physically and emotionally in A War with the parallel dramas unfolding in Claus’ and Maria’s lives. They are both fighting for their own respective happiness and jointly feel life’s devastations when things are thrown into despair. The question becomes “What justifies something as being ‘the right thing’ or ‘politically correct’ when your life or the lives of the people you love is at risk?” Lindholm takes A War to philosophical depths that asks the audience to actively participate in the viewing experience by pondering the same existential thoughts as the protagonists.

While most films in this genre tend to overdramatize the action, “Hollywood-izing” the experience, A War does no such glorifying. Instead, what we have here is a harrowing and realistic account of what I can only imagine to be heightened tension during battle. In both a very literal and abstract sense, A War represents the universality of the human condition when put under extreme pressure and the lengths one is willing to go to in times of despair. A War is rated R for language and some war-related images and is in Danish with English subtitles.