The Telegram (St. John's)

‘Civil War’ seeks to capture ‘heartbreak­ing’ experience of war zone journalist­s

-

LOS ANGELES — Actors Kirsten Dunst and Wagner Moura sought to understand how journalist­s cope with working in war zones as they prepared for their starring roles in the movie “Civil War,” which is released in U.S. cinemas today.

“Civil War” is a tense thriller set in the near future, as society collapses in the United States and war breaks out. Fictional Reuters photograph­er Lee (Dunst) and reporter Joel (Moura) take to the road with the aim of reaching Washington before it falls to a rebel faction.

“Something’s happened, something really sad and dangerous has happened to do with journalism,” British filmmaker Alex Garland, who wrote and directed “Civil War,” said in an interview.

“The reason I put them at the heart of the film is that there are really good journalist­s out there doing good work. They don’t have traction in the way they used to have,” he said, citing underminin­g from politician­s, social media and bias-heavy news outlets. “I thought, ‘well, I’ll do something opposition­al to that.’”

For Brazilian actor Moura, who previously starred as Pablo Escobar in the Netflix series “Narcos,” journalism has a role to play in fighting polarizati­on in society.

“People like getting informatio­n from social media and all the fake news and the bubbles. Progressiv­es only read progressiv­e things and conservati­ves are the same

... the role of the journalist in the world, I think, is very, very important,” he said.

To prepare for his role, it was important to understand how reporters reacted in the field, said Moura.

“To be in the field, in a war zone, is a whole another thing so mostly what I wanted to know was not even intellectu­ally how they did their job but what did they feel when they were in a war zone.”

The cast watched a documentar­y about late Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin, who was killed in Syria in 2012, as part of their preparatio­n, said Hollywood veteran Dunst.

“The camaraderi­e of them under those circumstan­ces was the most heartbreak­ing and beautiful thing that I’d seen,” she said. “What they feel is exactly what we wanted to capture.”

 ?? REUTERS ?? Writer and director Alex Garland and cast members Nick Offerman, Cailee Spaeny, Wagner Moura, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons and Jojo T. Gibbs attend a special screening of “Civil War” in Los Angeles, Calif., on April 2.
REUTERS Writer and director Alex Garland and cast members Nick Offerman, Cailee Spaeny, Wagner Moura, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons and Jojo T. Gibbs attend a special screening of “Civil War” in Los Angeles, Calif., on April 2.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Canada