MEMORIES OF THE GREAT WAR
Vera Brittain’s powerful account of life during the First World War makes for a thrilling biopic
When Vera Brittain’s Testament of Youth was first published in 1933, her unique take on growing into womanhood during the First World War became one of the most beloved memoirs of the modern era. Today, director James Kent brings her very personal account of sacrifice, sweeping love, loss and feminism to the big screen, featuring an all-star British cast of Dominic West, Emily Watson, Miranda Richardson, Colin Morgan and Hayley Atwell portraying the formative years of this brilliant young woman’s life.
We first meet the aspiring young writer, exquisitely played by Alicia Vikander ( A Royal Affair, Anna Karenina), as she flirts with her future in the summer of 1914. Brittain has gained a hard-won place to read English at Somerville College, Oxford, at a time when women were not allowed to take university degrees, and she is indulging in the first flush of love with her brother’s friend, Roland Leighton (Kit Harington: Game of Thrones), who shares her dream of being a writer.
Brittain’s parents, sensitively portrayed by Dominic West ( The Wire) and Emily Watson ( The Book Thief, War Horse), are resistant to her academic dreams and feminist leanings, but when war breaks out, Brittain abandons her studies and volunteers as a nurse in the war effort. She finds herself caring for German soldiers on the Western Front, while conducting an intense affair with Leighton.
Throughout this beautiful biopic, we share a brilliant young woman’s journey from innocent, optimistic, idealistic undergraduate to worldly-wise womanhood, encountering immense personal sacrifice and the loss of loved ones along the way. Poignant and powerful, Testament of Youth is a must-see and is in cinemas 16 January.