He knew that one day he would have to bring it to the screen, but he didn’t think he had the capacity in Hollywood to tackle such an important issue.

“I was in no position to make a film about this at that time,” he told AFP.

That all changed after his short film “DeKalb Elementary” received critical acclaim and an Oscar nomination in 2018, so he went back to the New Yorker article and began work on “Atonement,” which is in limited release Friday.

Based on magazine excerpts, the film begins in 2003, when the lives of an Iraqi family and a war veteran tragically intertwine while under fire in Baghdad.

Maryam Khachaturian, played by Hiam Abbass, and her family are trying to reach their home when two of their vehicles are fired upon by a Marine unit it believes is in danger.

Three passengers died in the firing, including Maryam’s husband.

Ultimately, the widow tries to leave the war behind by moving to the United States with her daughter.

Marine Lou D’Alessandro also wants to move on, but the consequences of the case he was involved in continue to haunt him.

He feels that the only way he may be able to exorcise his demons is to seek out Mary.

Van Dyke said, “I was so impressed by this piece of writing and the story and all these characters and the way their lives were intertwined in a very tragic way and then by some miracle, they all reconnected with each other a decade later.”

In the film, Lou and Miriam sit face to face in California, brought together by the efforts of Michael Reed, a journalist who interviewed them both about the war.

“I was very attracted to the idea of ​​that complexity, and also to the idea of ​​witnessing this remarkable meeting over the course of years with two people who were trying to deal with very different types of enormous pain and loss,” Branagh told AFP on the sidelines of the Toronto International Film Festival.

“And then this really compelling drama of this extremely difficult thing, meeting again to feel, to discuss, to forget, to forgive,” said the British actor, whose character is inspired by the original article’s author, journalist Dexter Filkins.

– ‘A new context’ –

“Atonement” arrives in American theaters just days after the US formally ended its decades-long mission in Iraq, but this time the country is again at war with Iran.

Van Dyke said, “I was drawn to writing about these three people and learning about them, and this was despite the fact that, you know, this was not a story that was making headlines at the time of my writing.”

But “as we’re making the film, the world is mired in war everywhere. So it brings a new context to all of our work.”

For Holbrook, portraying the suffering Lou was “a wonderful experience”, but also intimidating.

“Preparation for a film like this is everything and for me it was life-changing,” he told AFP.

“It was something that I really had to discover and discover in myself, that empathy and courage. [his character] “Lou had it.”

Abbas said she wanted to get justice for Maryam.

“I wanted to take his place and scream out my feelings and my anger about why this had to happen,” she said.

“Why on earth do we keep going on all the time, causing this pain to people, no matter who they are, who they are, what nationality they come from, whatever conflict we’re talking about.”

PR/HG/SLA

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