The Pity of War: The Loves and Lives of the War Poets

A Very Long Engagement

October 2004 •French

Young Frenchwoman Mathilde searches for the truth about her missing fiancé, lost during World War I, and learns many unexpected things along the way. The love of her life is gone. But she refuses to believe he's gone forever — and she needs to know for sure.

The Island of Thirty Coffins

September 1979 •French

The story takes place in 1917. Véronique is a young woman of 35 years, nurse at the military hospital of Besançon. She suddenly learns of the murder of her husband, the mysterious Count Vorski, whom she has not seen for fourteen years. Her research will also lead her to the track of her father and son whom she believed to have died in a shipwreck, already a long time ago. From clue to clue, here we are in Brittany, on this island with a name so ill-fitting... Brutal deaths, enigmatic words written... by whom? A frightening prophecy, the superstitious terror of the island's inhabitants, and suddenly, Veronica d'Hergemont can no longer leave this island. She's stuck alone. Almost alone...

First Flight

January 2008 •Thai

It is 1911 when the birth of Aviation happens in Siam. Siam is the first country to start an aviation program in Asia. A program to train Thai pilots to fight in World War I by the side of the Allies, but after having several setbacks, will they prove to be qualified enough to go to war as not everyone in Siam believes in it?

The Cardinal

December 1963 •English

A young Catholic priest from Boston confronts bigotry, Nazism, and his own personal conflicts as he rises to the office of cardinal.

Trianon

June 2018 •Hungarian

Once and Forever

October 1927 •English

Silent romantic drama starring Patsy Ruth Miller who suffers along with her beloved after he loses his sight during WWI.

The Big Parade

November 1925 •English

The story of an idle rich boy who joins the US Army's Rainbow Division and is sent to France to fight in World War I, becomes friends with two working class men, experiences the horrors of trench warfare, and finds love with a French girl.

The Rifleman

November 2019 •Latvian

The love story of sixteen-year-old Arturs is interrupted by the First World War. After losing his mother and his home, he finds some consolation in joining the army, because this is the first time national battalions are allowed in the Russian Empire. But war is nothing like Arturs imagined – no glory, no fairness. It is brutal and painful. Arturs is now completely alone as war takes the lives of his father and brother. Also, no progress is made in the promised quick resolution of the war and timely return home. Within the notion that only he alone cares about returning home and that his homeland is just a playground for other nations, Arturs finds strength for the final battle and eventually returns home to start everything from scratch, just like his newly born country.

Aphrodite

January 1982 •French

Harry is a young millionaire on holiday; he takes his yacht to a Greek island, and stays in the mansion of his friend...

Kommando Selbstzerstörung - Der Untergang der Kaiserlichen Flotte

September 2020 •German

All Quiet on the Western Front

April 1930 •English

When a group of idealistic young men join the German Army during the Great War, they are assigned to the Western Front, where their patriotism is destroyed by the harsh realities of combat.

Doctor Zhivago

December 1965 •English

The life of a Russian physician and poet who, although married to another, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during World War I and then the October Revolution.

The Great Dictator

October 1940 •English

Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.

Lawrence of Arabia

December 1962 •English

The story of British officer T.E. Lawrence's mission to aid the Arab tribes in their revolt against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. Lawrence becomes a flamboyant, messianic figure in the cause of Arab unity but his psychological instability threatens to undermine his achievements.

Paths of Glory

October 1957 •English

A commanding officer defends three scapegoats on trial for a failed offensive that occurred within the French Army in 1916.

Grand Illusion

June 1937 •French

A group of French soldiers, including the patrician Captain de Boeldieu and the working-class Lieutenant Maréchal, grapple with their own class differences after being captured and held in a World War I German prison camp. When the men are transferred to a high-security fortress, they must concoct a plan to escape beneath the watchful eye of aristocratic German officer von Rauffenstein, who has formed an unexpected bond with de Boeldieu.

The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain

May 1995 •English

When an English cartographer arrives in Wales to tell the residents of the Welsh village of Ffynnon Garw that their 'mountain' is only a hill, the offended community sets out to remedy the situation.

Hotel Imperial

May 1939 •English

It is the fate of a small frontier town, adjoining the no-man's-land where the Russians and Austrians are fighting out one of the final campaigns of World War I, to be occupied one day by the Russians, the next by the Austrians, and the inhabitants soon acquire a complacent view of the changing allegiances. To the town comes Ann Warschaska, intent on avenging the suicide of her sister, who has killed herself after being betrayed by an Austrian officer. She knows no more about his identity than the number of his room at the "Hotel Imperial".

All Quiet on the Western Front

November 1979 •English

At the start of World War I, Paul Baumer is a young German patriot, eager to fight. Indoctrinated with propaganda at school, he and his friends eagerly sign up for the army soon after graduation. But when the horrors of war soon become too much to bear, and as his friends die or become gravely wounded, Paul questions the sanity of fighting over a few hundreds yards of war-torn countryside.

Newfoundland at Armageddon

June 2016 •English

On July 1st, 1916, the Newfoundland Regiment took part in a massive First World War offensive on the Somme, led by the British. At Beaumont Hamel the regiment was nearly wiped out, as only 110 of 780 soldiers survived the day. To commemorate its 100th anniversary, Brian McKenna’s documentary film tells the story of this epic tragedy. Using a technique that brings new meaning to reenactment, McKenna recruits descendants of soldiers who fought this battle, offering them a unique opportunity to relive the experience of their ancestors in trenches built specifically for the film.